Tamworth council calls on NSW for solution to animal housing crisis

Tamworth Regional Council's Director of Liveable Communities Gina Vereker addressed a NSW parliamentary inquiry this week, calling on MPs to mandate the desexing of cats at the state government's cost.

"The reality is that councils are struggling to manage, hold, feed, house and rehome the number of rehomable companion animals being received," Ms Vereker's submission to the inquiry reads.

She cites animal shelters being a low priority on council's asset management plans, cost of living increases, and a "huge" increase in abandoned animals during the COVID pandemic as reasons for the growing issue.

"It's not just us who are overflowing with surrenders and abandoned animals, it's across the board and across the state," Ms Vereker told media the day after fronting the inquiry.

"Desexing cats and dogs across the board is the only way we're going to deal with the problem of unwanted, abandoned, surrendered, stray animals. Whilst dogs are required to be de-sexed, cats aren't, so it's really important that out of this inquiry there's a mandate for the de-sexing of cats."

She also told the inquiry to mandate cat containment - either indoors or in an outside enclosure - because of their impact on native wildlife; a position backed by several local groups including the Tamworth Regional Landcare Association and Tamworth Birdwatchers.

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Ms Vereker said while Tamworth isn't euthanising surrendered animals, the Tamworth Companion Animal Centre and the newly-renovated Paws for Life animal shelter are consistently at capacity, with staff often rejecting new animals or asking owners to hold on to them for a few extra days.

"We're not doing that [euthanising], but it's a possibility. It's not our policy to euthanise animals that have a chance of being re-homed, and I'd hate for us to get to that point," she said.

"I worry for the staff because the mental health pressure on staff when they have to turn animals away is really, really difficult."

On the bright side, she said, a flood of community support has gotten staff at the animal shelters to a point where they can prepare to open Paws for Life during the week, instead of Saturdays only.

"Volunteers need to be lauded. We couldn't do it without them ... some fall away as time goes on, so we're consistently asking people to sign up so we can keep that number of regular volunteers around 20," Ms Vereker said.

"We've finally recruited our last additional member of staff, so we're now fully staffed for our rotation between Paws for Life and the Companion Animal Centre, so watch this space because we'll be looking to open during the week at Paws for Life too."

Council has a dozen regular and eight semi-regular volunteers working at Paws for Life so far, with 30 more waiting to be inducted.

However, council's lease on Paws for Life is temporary, and Ms Vereker says it's hard to imagine building a new pound, despite the city's desperate need for a newer, bigger facility.

"That's going to cost several million, and we heard [at the inquiry] yesterday that Dubbo council is building a new pound, and in the time they've been working on it the cost has doubled from $3 million to $6 million," she said.

"That was a very frightening statistic for me, thinking how is Tamworth council and the Tamworth community supposed to fund a new facility without help from the state government."

She said simply revamping the existing Paws for Life shelter cost $250,000 and will continue to cost Tamworth Regional Council an additional $200,000 per year to keep the facility staffed.

Council also subsidises vaccinations and desexing twice a year at the NSW RSPCA's Healthy Pet Days, something Ms Vereker says the local government is looking to expand on in coming years.

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