THE Australian Animal Protection Society's
Keysborough animal shelter is overflowing with cats and dogs, but is
turning away would-be owners.
Society treasurer Viv Williams said it was a shelter
policy that animals were not sold to owners believed unsuitable.
As the top refuge for cats in Melbourne's south, the
shelter takes in around 200 cats a week, of which half are put down.
Around 20 per cent of the dogs handed in are also
destroyed.
The shelter is now so flooded with stray cats and
kittens that the society has joined the Cat Crisis Coalition, which is
demanding compulsory desexing of cats.
But Ms Williams said the shelter would rather put an
animal down than ``have it lead a short, miserable life''.
``It's not many people who fall into this category but we are very fussy
about who we sell animals to. . . we are not a pet supermarket.''
Ms Williams said unsuitable owners included those
with inappropriate housing or who wanted a pet as a surprise gift, or
children who manhandled the shelter's animals.
The shelter would also rarely hand over an animal as
a pet for a child under four, Ms Williams said.``We had a woman whose
child killed a kitten by putting it in the clothes dryer wanting a
replacement. We didn't give her one,'' she said.
* THE Keysborough-based Animal Protection Society is
one of 12 animal welfare groups behind a new group lobbying for
compulsory desexing of cats.
A petition supporting compulsory desexing can be
signed at the Animal Protection Society's shelter at 10 Homeleigh Rd,
Keysborough. Phone: 9798 8415.
