The WA Government has actually doubled financing for 2 western residential area animal rescue services which continue to be flooded with given up animals and skyrocketing veterinarian costs.
The State Government recently revealed a significant shot in the arm for 6 animal well-being organisations, increasing their yearly financing from $200,000 to $400,000 over the next 4 years.
Dogs’ Refuge Home and Cat Haven — both based in Shenton Park — have each had their yearly financing doubled to $150,000.
DRH basic supervisor Robyn Slater said the increase would help “enormously” to cover the veterinarian costs for given up dogs.
“Many people in the community have found themselves unable to pay for veterinary care, so a lot of these dogs sadly end up in pounds and eventually find their way to us,” she said.
“Since January 2023, we have spent over $80,000 on emergency and specialist care.
“To put this into perspective, this is four times our budgeted annual cost of $20,000. These figures do not include the standard care for our dogs, which is around $25,000 per month.”
Cat Haven marketing co-ordinator Amber Ashford said the start of this year had actually been tough for the service, with a boost in surrenders due to the rental crisis and increasing cost of living requiring individuals to pick in between feeding themselves or their animal.
“There have also been lower than usual adoption numbers for these same reasons, to combat these issues we have been doing adoption campaigns, fee free weekends, 50 per cent off adoptions and recruiting more foster carers to give the cats waiting a break from the shelter environment,” she said.
Ms Ashford said the State federal government financing had actually formerly covered 2 percent of their operating expense with the service mostly operating on contributions.
“On average it costs us $25 a day per cat we have in our care; with 6000 to 7000 cats coming in each year this adds up very quickly,” she said.
But relief is on the horizon for tenants, with the Government likewise revealing recently modifications to the State’s Rental Tenancy Act which will enable animals to be kept at the majority of residential or commercial properties.
Ms Ashford said owner surrenders comprised almost 30 percent of their inbound cats in April, with the majority of due to not having the ability to discover pet-friendly leasings.
Ms Slater said the brand-new guidelines would be “an absolute game changer”.
“There are so many wonderful families out there desperate to invite a new fury family member into their homes, but can’t as their current rental does not allow pets,” she said.
“We have also seen an enormous amount of people having to surrender pets as they are unable to find suitable housing, which is absolutely heartbreaking for them, the dog and for us.”
