Little Paws Orphan Rescue owner Karissa Spindler says more needs to be done

After being approached by five different people in the space of two weeks, owner of Little Paws Orphan Rescue Karissa Spindler said she is disappointed after being told on each occasion that the Bathurst Pound refused to accept stray cats or kittens.

Director of environmental, planning and building services, with Bathurst Regional Council, Neil Southorn said council was not aware of reports cats were being turned away from the pound, nor is it council's policy.

However Ms Spindler said she believes the increase in kittens and cats being dumped in Bathurst is because people have no where to take stray cats, saying she has been told by people who have contacted a ranger and been told to "just let the cats go."

"This [dumping cats] will result in a huge increase in the number of stray and feral cats next year when the female kittens will be of breeding age.

"In 12 months, a mature female cat will, on average, have three litters of four kittens a year. Council has an obligation to take immediate action."

Ms Spindler said she is required to have all cats rehomed through Little Paws desexed before they're adopted, and she would like to see council follow the same guidelines when rehoming cats through the pound.

When asked about the pound desexing cats before adoption, Mr Southorn said while council strongly encourages desexing pets, the cost to do this for every animal that leaves the pound is significant.

"Council strongly supports responsible pet ownership and one of the key pillars of this is desexing your pet. It is preferred that all animals rehomed are desexed," he said.

"There is a significant cost to council in desexing animals, which is not recovered through adoption fees.

"Therefore, council will recommend to a member of the public interested in adopting an animal that they liaise with their preferred vet to arrange desexing prior to adoption."

However, one pet owner who recently adopted from the pound says at no point was she advised to get the cat desexed.

Rose Robinson booked an appointment to go and adopt a cat and was surprised to find that desexing wasn't included in the adoption fee.

In addition to that, she said not once was she encouraged by staff to look into it herself after adoption.

"The staff there, I couldn't fault them, they were very pleasant. But even so, they did not advise me to have her [the cat] desexed," Ms Robinson said.

"To me, desexing should have been the most important thing and the priority.

"I just wonder how many female cats leave that pound that are already pregnant. Never mind the people that won't bother once they've got the cat home and won't bother desexing. It's just a vicious cycle of breeding."

With the pound housing a large number of animals, some people calling up about stray animals are also being told that the pound can't take them.

Emma Bourke recently phoned council to enquire about hiring cat cages to catch some feral cats that have been tormenting her family's chickens.

On one occasion when the house door was left open, one of the feral cats even went inside the house to get to the baby chicks, but was scared off when Ms Bourke's brother walked into the room.

Ms Bourke said when she spoke to council she was told that she could hire the cages but as the pound was full, she would have to "dispose" of the cats herself.

"I was a bit taken back and puzzled and was like what am I supposed to do? And the lady said you'll have to take them to the vet to get them euthanised," Ms Bourke said.

"I think it's important that if the council is responsible for supporting members of the community to dispose of feral animals that can't be rehomed, that they should do that. It's quite expensive to go and get them euthanised ourselves."

A Bathurst Regional Council representative said the protocol for dealing with feral cats once caught changes on a case by case basis, but usually council would ask that the cat be taken to the pound and the situation would be managed from there.

However, the high number of animals currently at the pound would likely impact this, and construction on the new Bathurst Animal Rehoming Centre is still yet to be completed.

At this stage, the facility is expected to be completed this month.

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