‘Clause’ is killing animals
A TOWNSVILLE-BASED animal fostering service operator, who claims the organisation has taken in the Burdekin’s ‘worst of the worst’ treated animals, said a clause on a contract with the local council stopped her from saving more animals.
A contract dated to May 2015 between Burdekin Shire Council and Townsville Foster and Rehoming Animals carried a clause requesting that where possible, rescued Burdekin animals would not be rehomed in the shire.
Townsville Foster and Rehoming Animals director Angela Atkinson said it was this clause that forced her to stop rescuing animals abandoned at the Burdekin pound.
“It wasn’t fair because there is really, really good farmers with good quality people down there so if I was going to rescue from down there I wasn’t allowed to return them back there,” Ms Atkinson said.
“I used to take in lots of animals from the Burdekin. We would take anything on death row that wasn’t collected... a lot of the animals that go into the pound get euthanised.”
Figures from the 2019-20 financial year revealed 85 of almost 400 impounded animals were euthanised. Two thirds of the 393 animals at the pound were either surrendered to the council or left at the pound.
Despite the startling numbers, more than 300 of the impounded animals were either returned to their owners or rehomed.
Burdekin Mayor Lyn Mclaughlin said at the time of the contract between Townsville Foster and Rehoming Animals and the council “working with a rehoming agency was new to the Burdekin”.
“We didn’t want to exacerbate our existing animal management issues by introducing more dogs to the Burdekin,” she said. “Also, as TFRA was based in Townsville the clause seemed practical.”
Ms Atkinson said many of the animals she had rescued from the Burdekin were very sick and required a significant amount of vet work.
To rehome an animal at the Burdekin pound it must be registered and microchipped and desexed. Payment is required, including evidence of prepayment of the microchipping and desexing, prior to release of the animal.