Plea to find homes for underdogs living in shelters for years
Sydney dog shelters are seeing adoption rates fall and surrender rates rise more this year than previously due to cost of living pressures.
NSW
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All rescue animals likely dream of the day they find their “furever” home, but Dezzy the Maltese Shih tzu cross is among a growing number of dogs spending their lives waiting to be loved.
For eight years, the 13-year-old pooch has been in the care of Monika’s Dog Rescue in the Sydney suburb of Ingleside, spending more than half his life waiting for his perfect owner.
According to his foster carer and shelter founder Monika Biernacki, a host of other furry friends have waited more than five years for some TLC.
While behavioural quirks like his fear of men and children have made it difficult for Dezzy to find his match, Ms Biernacki said the shrinking size of Sydney properties meant the shelter’s “medium to large-size dogs” were also spending longer in care than ever before, with the shelter bursting at the seams with “long-termers”.
“We have no room. We’re full with over 80 dogs in the shelter and more than 30 in foster homes … a lot of people are living in tighter urban environments where (the dogs) are not appropriate and it’s just hard,” she said.
“These are long-term dogs because we don’t believe in killing. These dogs have been here about four or five years, they spend almost a quarter of their life here. But it’s not a home.”
Other long termers include staffy mixes Chippy and Peanut, who were picked up by the shelter in 2020, and husky mother-daughter pair Autumn and Denali, rescued alongside with 100 other huskies in a hoarder’s property in 2021.
Ms Biernacki said of the 30 huskies the shelter rescued four years ago, only 10 had successfully been adopted.
“We took about 30, and these dogs have never had much human engagement or been fed enough. A lot of them are still here, some need a lot of work,” Mrs Biernacki said.
According to Group Manager of Animal Operations Kristy Blake, the length of time a dog stays at an RSPCA shelter across the harbour city has also increased in the past year by 54 days,
“We are noticing across all our shelters a big increase, about 12.5 per cent, of the average length of stay for canines … which is significantly higher than last year.” said Ms Blake.
“We certainly have seen a slow down of adoption rates and we think that it directly relates to the cost of living.”
Ms Blake said adult mixed breed dogs especially were sidestepped by prospective pet parents in favour of the rescue group’s newest arrivals time and time again.
“Puppies move quickly, as a general rule of thumb,’ she said.
“A lot of people are looking for puppies as well as designer breeds.
“It’s very unfortunate as (mixed breed dogs) make just as amazing companions as the designer breeds.”
Older dogs especially are struggling to find a home for their twilight years as adoption rates slow, according to Greyhound Rescue’s rehoming and rehabilitation manager Kirstie Bear.
“A lot of different rehoming centres and rescues are definitely seeing fewer applications (for adoption) come through and that’s due to cost of living. People are less likely to want more mouths to feed,” Ms Bear said.
“Its just really hard to place older dogs. Everyone wants younger puppies.”
How to adopt a dog: Go to doggierescue.com and rspcansw.org.au
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Originally published as Plea to find homes for underdogs living in shelters for years
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