It’s been a tough year for our animals. We often hear the words ‘most vulnerable in our community’ but I really do believe that animals are the MOST vulnerable.
They have no agency about where they live, their environment or their health. They can’t speak or advocate for themselves. Their welfare is totally dependent on us humans in every single way.
Sadly, at RSPCA ACT we get to see so many animals who have been let down in the worst of ways. And even sadder, we see this every single week with more injured and hurt, sick, afraid, homeless, abandoned or pushed aside animals coming into our care.
This is the heart breaking reality we’re dealing with:
We have had between 30 – 40% more animals coming into our care than the same period last year and our surrender lists are at an all-time high.
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- There are many reasons for this, some due to cost of living, some due to a transient community in the ACT, some due to personal circumstances changing for the worse and there is also a sad backlash from the Covid pet ownership spike where animal ownership has now become too hard or too big a commitment.
More of the animals coming to us have complex needs and therefore stay with us for very long periods of time before they are adopted.
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- These reasons include critical medical care and rehabilitation as well as behavioural challenges such as poor socialisation, anxiety and reactivity.
It is sadly not unusual for an animal to be with us for many months, sometimes even a year or more. The time, care, effort and resources required to getting our animals adoption ready and keeping them physically healthy and mentally stimulated while they are in our care, are higher than ever before.
I couldn’t be more proud of our team who shows up for these animals in a big way.
- We will always provide every animal with the best possible care, but shelters can be much noisier and busier than a home—so our animals can sometimes feel scared and stressed. Where the population is high, disease also spreads more easily.
- We rely heavily on our foster networks for short term respite too, but we have much more animals than foster carers, even with staff members also regularly taking animals home to foster.
- Fewer people are able to adopt animals. The soaring cost of living plays a massive role because as we all know, food, medical care and housing are all very expensive.
- On top of this, because so many of our animals have not been socialised well and from an early age, or because they lived rough on the street and were rescued as colony cats, they are not suited to go to homes with other animals or younger children, making finding that perfect home even harder.
- Our infrastructure and resources are stretched to a limit. Because of our not-fit-for purpose facility, the high numbers of animals coming in, the immensely long time in our care, the medical intervention required and the declining rate of adoption, it means that we have less space to take in new animals at the rate that they need our care.
Hopefully I don’t sound too cliched when I say that YOU are the wind beneath our wings. Thank you for enabling our team to meet these challenges and to do everything we can to care for our animals. Truly, your support, generosity and kindness is the fuel for what we do.
Right now, we are struggling, but with your help, I know that we will continue to rise and reach happy outcomes for our most vulnerable animals.
Thank you for being there with us, and for the animals.
Warm regards,
Michelle Robertson
Chief Executive, RSPCA ACT
P.S. If you can, please donate now to fund a future care for animals in need. / Any level of support you can extend to RSPCA ACT will be gratefully received. Please consider making a tax-deductible gift by June 30.
P.P.S. If you have already recently donated, thank you so much for your generosity.