A Sydney not-for-profit dog shelter has been forced to close after interest rate hikes had “devastating” impacts on its daily operations.
Lisa Younes has been independently rescuing dogs for 13 years, starting by saving dogs from the Blacktown Council pound before officially opening the not-for-profit rescue Pound Patrol in Bringelly.
Younes and her 30 volunteers have been rescuing dogs in line to be euthanised from local pounds since 2015, but she says recent interest rate hikes have made it impossible to keep up with demand.
“It’s never been as bad as it is today, there’s always a struggle with rescues because we rely solely on donations,” she told 9news.com.au.
“It’s a money situation, people aren’t in a financial position to donate anything spare.
“We are finding it really tough to pay back our kennel rent, pay the vet bills, vaccinate and desex, so we are really in a tough position.”
Pound Patrol officially announced it had to close its kennel doors this week.
“Our kennels are full, and our bank account is completely dry,” it said in a Facebook post.
“Our vet bills are through the roof and we have no money to pay for them, Pound Patrol will be closing its doors until further notice.”
Pound Patrol’s adoption fee is between $250 and $300 per dog, however, Younes says looking after each dog costs a lot more than that.
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“Some dogs cost us up to $1000, we’ve got dogs here that we can’t move or adopt out because council pounds are doing $40 adoptions, we simply can’t afford that.”
She also said that dogs who have been in not-for-profit shelters are ignored due to the higher adoption fee, which is necessary for the shelter’s survival.
“We can’t climb out of the hole, we have pregnant mums coming in all the time, or they get pregnant in the pound,” she said.
“Then give it eight weeks you’ve got a pregnant dog and ten puppies that go on the kill list.
“Our main problem at the moment is there are so many dogs in pounds, that has been a massive pressure on us as well.”
While it’s a complex issue, Younes says one of the ways shelters can recover is if mandatory desexing is passed as legislation to protect dogs and their pups being used for breeding and then dumped at pounds and shelters.
“Until they bring in mandatory desexing, the dog population will just keep getting bigger and bigger,” she said.
“These dogs have no voice, we have to be the voice for these dogs.”
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