Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue president Anne McNaughton is helping keep local animals cleaner and healthier through reducing cat colonies. Photo: Lost and Found Pets Illawarra.
An animal charity combatting a growing stray cat issue in the Illawarra while also reuniting and rehoming lost pets has turned thousands of recyclable bottles and cans into a way to make real change within the community.
Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Rescue has been embarking on an important mission to stop the impact of feral cat colonies in the region.
The charity, which works with the community to reunite lost pets and stop animals from being impounded, has been humanely helping to reduce the issues caused by masses of stray cats by capturing and desexing the animals before releasing them to where they came from.
“There’s lots of sickness in colonies which is not nice; it can be quite dirty as well,” president Anne McNaughton said.
“But the main thing is that they’re just out there breeding and the colonies are getting bigger and bigger, so it’s really important to be able to desex them, put them back and then eventually there won’t be a colony.”
It costs hundreds of dollars for each animal to be desexed, but used bottles are helping to foot the bill, with the charity raising more than $12,000 through the Return and Earn scheme over about four years.
“We get help from a local club, the Shellharbour Club, who collect containers and put them aside for us,” Anne said.
“We are really grateful to them; that support has been ongoing. Sometimes we get calls from the wider community who say they have some bottles for us, so we go and collect those. People can be very kind.
“And we also have a lot of our followers from our Facebook page who save containers for us and we go and collect them.
At 10 cents an item, Lost and Found Pets Illawarra has marked an incredible feat by raising more than $12,000. Photo: Return and Earn.
“Every animal we adopt out also gets a pack, which includes our Return and Earn bar code, which can be scanned at Return and Earn machines so container refunds can be donated to us.”
In addition to planned surgeries and expenses, the extra funds help the charity prepare for and act quickly when an animal welfare case arises.
“A couple of weeks ago there was a little cat found who was just completely matted and astray, so we actually took him to the vet and got him shaved and one of our volunteers looked after him and then we found his owner which was awesome – he’d been missing for ages,” Anne said.
“It just worked really well because the day that he was found, a lady that lives close to me donated a lot of bottles that was $97 worth and then the little cat was found so that actually straight away paid for what we needed to do with him, so it was just meant to be.”
Lost and Found Pets also raises money through other avenues such as stalls and barbecues, but it’s the dedicated people who make it possible and the team is always looking for more.
“We would have a regular of around 40 volunteers who do all sorts of things; we have people if any of our foster animals need to be transported they’ll go and do that, or they help on fundraising – anything we need really,” Anne said.
“And around 19 foster carers.
“Some people can do way more than other people can and that’s fine – some people have jobs and families, so there’s nothing too small for a volunteer; we can always find people a place.”
To find out how to make your Return and Earn donation support Lost and Found Pets Illawarra, or other ways to support the organisation visit the charity’s website.
