Animals kept in pounds can be locked up 23 hours and 40 minutes a day as animal welfare groups demand more over-sight as well as more rights for animals kept in pounds. 

A NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Pounds was announced just weeks after the Bourke Shire Council was accused of animal cruelty and failure to exercise its required duty of care in a new complaint to the NSW government and RSPCA NSW in June this year. 

In the complaint, Animal Liberation alleges all but one of nine dogs contracted parvovirus, spread by faeces and other health issues. 

The complaint, which is strenuously denied by the council, arose after two volunteers from Domestic Animal Rescue and Education Incorporation (DARE) visited the pound in February to retrieve nine dogs and puppies. 

Image: ABC. 

Practices at the Bourke pound made headlines around the world in August 2021, when 15 dogs and puppies were shot after the facility said it was unable to rehome them due to COVID-19 restrictions. 

The RSPCA submission to the inquiry cites long hours confinement, "insufficient access to expertise in the field of canine and feline behaviour" and lack of access to vet care and anti-anxiety medication at council pounds along with a "high risk of disease." 

It said council do not have mandatory standards or training requirements to support the welfare of animals 

Lack of regulation is only part of the problem say the RSPCA with lack of resources and lack of homes for stay animals to go to being the other. 

Image: Cats being held at a pound in NSW (not Bourke Shire Council). Image: Animal Liberation NSW. 

RSPCA NSW says it aware of individual animals living at veterinary clinics for over five months following surgery whilst the vets attempt to negotiate the reclaiming or rehoming of animals they have cared for. 

While in another case “animals adopted to the rescue from Council were seized in the weeks and months that followed, for example on one occasion in populations of 70 cats in a residential home”. 

“Mandatory standards for animal welfare in NSW pounds and shelters are vital to provide the direction necessary to ensure that facilities all meet a minimum standards” with “strong evidence for making available free, accessible desexing”. 

It says 9% dogs and a third of cats are euthanised when they come to a pound, with behavioural issues for dogs the most cited reason for euthanasia. They wont better reporting requirements. 

“Focusing on euthanasia rates without addressing the root cause of the ongoing and significant over-population of unowned and unwanted animals in our community is short sighted.” the submission said. 

Image: The Guardian 

Pounds “leading cause of death for companion animals” 

Being killed in an animal pound or shelter is the leading cause of death for companion animals in Australia said Animal Liberation NSW in their submission. 

“That the oversight of NSW Council pounds and shelters has been largely self-regulating and ineffective with animals falling between a myriad of government departments and agencies.” it said. 

While the Animal Pet Welfare League recommends “Community Cat Programs” that “involve high-intensity free desexing, microchipping and registration of owned, semi-owned and unowned cats targeted to areas of high cat intake and complaints”. 

It further recommends that domestic cats (owned, semi-owned and unowned) should be excluded from the legal definition of feral cats in legislation and regulation to prevent the high rates of cat euthanasia at council pound