Funding lifeline for Northern animal shelter
Published on 17 August 2018
The State Government will provide funding to the City of Launceston to safeguard animal pound and shelter services in Northern Tasmania until the end of the year.
The RSPCA and the Council have been developing a proposal to transition from the current service model to a new sustainable model that will provide certainty for animal welfare management services in Northern Tasmania into the future.
The commitment from the State Government will allow the organisations to continue that work, with the goal of having the new model in place by the end of the year.
In coming weeks the Council will advertise public tenders for the provision of dog pound and regional animal shelter services.
The Council is also progressing plans for a regional cat shelter service for Northern Tasmania, which could ultimately be part funded by contributions from a group of Northern councils.
City of Launceston General Manager Michael Stretton said the new interim arrangement with the State Government would allow time for both the Council and the RSPCA to work through the transition process.
"This new funding announcement by the State Government will give us time to bed down alternate providers for those services," Mr Stretton said.
"The ongoing welfare of dogs and cats across Northern Tasmania will remain a priority for the City of Launceston as we strive to put in place alternate arrangements after December 31."
The RSPCA advised the City of Launceston earlier this year that it would close its doors at the Mowbray shelter by the end of the 2017-18 financial year unless it was provided additional funding.
The RSPCA indicated it wished to focus on its inspectorate services across Northern Tasmania — which is its core business — and would prefer to move away from providing shelter services for dogs and cats
The Council agreed to assist the RSPCA until the end of August through a $25,000 a month agreement, which came on top of the funding the Council provided for dog pound services.
Additionally, the Council engaged the services of KPMG to determine proposals for the future provision of sustainable dog pound and shelter services in the Northern region.
Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten said that the sheltering of cats and other animals was a regional community issue and the Council was exploring all options to ensure all animal welfare management services continued after December 31.
"The RSPCA shelter at Mowbray takes in animals from across all of Northern Tasmania," Mayor van Zetten said.
"To assume that Launceston's ratepayers should fully subsidise those services is inequitable and unfair.
"We believe the provision of sustainable dog pound, dog shelter and cat shelter services, which are geared towards caring for a re-homing unwanted or abandoned animals, is important to our community.
"The lack of such services would result in high euthanasia rates for both cats and dogs in Launceston — and that's just unacceptable."