National Pet Adoption Month comes to Stawell

In March, PETStock Stawell will partner with Adoptable Pet Rescue to push for more pet adoptions in the region, as well as education on responsible pet ownership.

Adoptable Pet Rescue volunteer Lauren said the group wanted to educate the community on the role adoption and foster care played in the wider animal rescue system.

"The aim is to get as much education out there into the community about why we rescue animals and what part people play in the role of rescuing these animals as adopters and foster carers," she said.

Lauren said the rescue shelter had a focus on controlling the number of cats in the region - and offered last litter programs to help curb the amount of potentially dangerous strays out in the community.

READ MORE:

"We have found that our cat impoundment rates in the Northern Grampians Shire have reduced substantially, although we haven't seen any figures from the Shire," she said.

"People can surrender the entire litter to us and we adopt them out de-sexed microchipped and vaccinated and then we either pay the full amount to get the mother desexed or bridge the gap from what the owner can afford and the full fee."

She said cats made up the majority of animals taken on by shelters in the region.

"The surrounding areas are more of our issue now. St Arnaud tends to be a bit worse than Stawell. We have relationships with Yarriambiack Animal Rescue and Pheonix in Horsham," she said.

"They can get overwhelmed, particularly this time of year when there are lots of kittens and people have been away for summer and are just settling back into life. It is really hard to get those kittens and cats into placements."

Lauren recommended pet adoption as a cheap and ethical alternative to "free-to-a-home" adoption, or purchasing an animal outright.

"It is a lot cheaper. We get rescue rates and those rescue rates are passed onto the adopter," she said.

"A de-sex and microchip for the average pet can sometimes cost twice as much as what you can adopt an animal for.

"You can pick them up for a really low price. When people get free kittens it is because they don't want to pay, but they end up paying more in the long run."

OTHER NEWS:

She said pet adoption also helped save other at-risk animals and ends the cycle of unwanted animals in the community.

"From our point of view, the more animals we have adopted that are in the community the better, because it doesn't feedback into the cycle of unwanted kittens," she said.

"Every animal that is adopted from us free up space for another animal to enter our program.

"You are literally saving lives. They are coming out of the pound and into our care because we have a free space made available by your adoption."

While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the region, sign up here.