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Council runs animal shelter in a shambolic manner

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The Alice Springs Animal Shelter has a proud history as a low-kill refuge for lost and abandoned pets in our animal-loving town.

That is now all but gone.

Not long ago, the Town Council took over the running of the shelter with much self-congratulatory fanfare. The understaffed shelter was on its knees after an influx of pets and parsimonious support from the Council despite many pleas for assistance over the past few years.

The shelter urgently needs a long-term plan for its future and funding for facilities and staff. Instead, the Council has assigned the Rangers to run the shelter. Yesterday afternoon there was an injured dog in the Mall being looked after by kind-hearted locals.

They wanted to transport it to a vet but it couldn’t walk and Rangers were needed to drive up the Mall. Over two hours, calls to the seven Rangers including to their mobile went unanswered and finally, the dog had to be carried to a vehicle.

Instead of funding the shelter to recruit more staff and expand its facilities, the Council prefers to splash our rates on a range of expensive but dubious infrastructure projects.

Meanwhile, the shelter is run in an ad hoc, shambolic manner. Currently, it is closed and not taking animals.

There is no point calling the Rangers if you see a lost pet, they have nowhere to take it.

Many pets have been dumped onto local vets whose services are now hampered by the influx.

There is a rehoming event that may save some animals but the likely outcome of this long-term neglect and failure to urgently respond to the crisis is mass euthanasia.

Ralph Folds, Alice Springs

IMAGE YouTube. UPDATE 19/8/24 at 10.30am The News asked the Town Council on August 4 to respond to this Letter to the Editor from Ralph Folds but the Council did not reply. However, when asked, it stated today that it has stepped in to operate the facility and it is still fully functioning. "There have been no changes with the Rangers ensuring it's business as usual for the public."

UPDATE 19/8/24 at 11.15am That is in conflict with a comment we received from Mr Folds this morning. When asked he said his belief that Shelter is closed was prompted by this Facebook notice (pictured), possibly posted by the Shelter organisation which is in receivership. Mr Folds says he was trying to get clarification from the liquidator but the quoted telephone number wasn't working. A few minutes ago Mr Folds called at the Shelter, found it closed and locked and a sign saying temporarily closed, until further notice, contact Council 89 500500.