Puddle the kitten was pulled from a drain, with Lost and Found Pets Inc. giving him a second chance. Photo: Lost and Found Pets Inc.
Illawarra rescue and rehoming organisations will be able to better protect animals and give them a second chance at life with more than $60,000 injected into local charities to continue their work.
Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Inc. Rescue is overwhelmed by demand, with calls coming in every day about kittens and cats that need to be cared for.
But with the charity’s volunteers caring for several animals at a time, they have limited capacity to take in those that are already ill.
“I just got a message from somebody saying, ‘Can you take a little kitten; it has ringworm’ and at this point we can’t because everybody has other cats and kittens,” Lost and Found Pets Illawarra Inc. president Anne McNaughton said.
“So with a quarantine facility we can take cats and kittens and keep them separate from everybody else until we make sure that there’s nothing wrong with them.”
That vital infrastructure is now made possible with a $24,300 grant from the state government.
“That’s going to really open up a lot for us to be able to do that, because if anything is high risk, we just can’t take them at this point,” Anne said.
“It protects the animals that we already have and helps us to be able to help more.”
The rescue service is one of 58 organisations across the state receiving a share of $1.5 million to support the welfare of animals, with the work of Animal Welfare League Illawarra and Illawarra Cat Rescue Limited also boosted by $21,600 and $16,200 respectively, as well statewide organisations such as RSPCA NSW, which also operates in the area.
“These wonderful organisations are largely run by volunteers who dedicate their time, effort and hearts to protecting the most vulnerable cats and dogs,” Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig said.
“This funding will help provide safe havens for surrendered animals, return lost pets to their owners, and find temporary and forever homes for animals without care.”
As well as expanding operations, the funding with allow Illawarra organisations to continue their vital work and support others within the community to do the right thing.
But operating costs continue to climb and the charities rely mostly on fundraising and donations to stay afloat.
“Desexing, vaccinating, microchipping – obviously you do get sick animals too; we’ve had to buy a lot of worming products, we’ve had to buy a lot of products for fleas and all of that costs a lot of money,” Anne said.
“We supply all of the food for our foster carers. The only thing they supply is cat litter, we supply everything else.”
It’s not just animals in their care that they’re looking out for, with Lost and Found Pets Inc. proactively addressing the overpopulation of cats within the region.
“Around the Wollongong area, Warrawong, Lake Heights and some of the northern suburbs there are a lot of cat colonies,” Anne said.
“So what we want to do is be able to help those people who feed the colonies to be able to trap some of the cats and then desex them and then return them to where they were.
“The aim is eventually there won’t be those colonies.”
The volunteer-run organisation relies on people dedicating their time to support their services, and there’s plenty of opportunity for community members to play their part in protecting animals across the region.
“We’re always looking for more foster carers, because we don’t have a shelter or anything like that,” Anne said.
“We’re also looking for people to save their bottles for us to come and help us collect bottles; we have adoption days so any people who can promote our rescue and talk to people who are looking at the kittens too.”
For more information about the services or to get involved with animal rescue, visit the Lost and Found Illawarra Inc. website, or reach out to a rescue organisation near you.
