Dog Rescue Association of Victoria (DRAV)

Dear Friends

We are a group of incorporated rescue associations who believe that the lives of each of our companion animals is precious.

Once again we were concerned we were being targeted by the Bureau of Animal Welfare when they posted on their website that we could no longer take undesexed dogs.  Hence we began to gear for our next campaign.

Fortunately the Bureau of Animal Welfare has written to us and confirmed that their posting was erroneous.  It has been corrected.

Yes we can continue to take undesexed animals as long as we have a Section 84Y with the pound.  They have also agreed with our interpretation that a CFCN with a Section 84Y can pass on to another CFCN but only if vetworked.

Even better, for those of us who save wherever we can, they agree that if we take an animal from a pound under a Section 84Y we have the right to pass that animal on to a shelter undesexed, as they are bound under their own Code to do the vetwork.

This is a big win for all who mourn the loss of lives every day in Victorian pounds.   But we urge you still, even though the urgency is gone, to write to the Premier, The Minister Mr Walsh, The Opposition Leader and his Minister, your local politician to say that you support community foster care networks and the work they do, and that it should be mandatory for council pounds to rehome to them.   Until that is mandatory,  dogs and cats will die when CFCNs and other rescue groups are turned away every day from pounds.

We must also celebrate that community foster care networks are for the first time recognised as entities in the Domestic Animals Act.  Not bad for a term coined by DRAV two years ago. We are there in the Act.  And we are staying here in Victoria. Saving dogs and cats from death and helping where we can.

Please make your voice heard. They cannot speak. Let us speak for them.

Trisha Taylor (President)