Funding helps in shelter’s land bid

PAWS and Claws will continue searching for a suitable block of land to host an animal shelter after securing $300,000 from state government coffers.

Douglas Shire Mayor Julia Leu said she was thrilled to have secured the funding for the shelter.

“This is something that we have worked on for a long time,” she said.

“We have had rallies, we have held fundraisers … you can’t have abandoned animals running around our pristine environment.

“We have the funds for building the shelter ready, we just needed financial help to buy the land.”

Paws and Claws Refuge Centre shut down at its Craiglie site on the Captain Cook Highway when the property was sold in August last year.

The not-for-profit organisation already has financial backing to build the new shelter, but has struggled to find suitable land after a Douglas Shire Council application to purchase land at Yule Point was knocked back by the State Government earlier this year.

Labor’s candidate for Cook Cynthia Lui said the refuge was “enormously important”.

“No one wants to see animals homeless or dumped because of a lack of accommodation, so a new home for Paws and Claws is greatly welcomed by the community,’’ Ms Lui said.

Animals have been fostered out since the closure.

A search for a new block of land for the shelter will continue.