NSW bushfires: Refuge for pets thanks to vet’s kind gesture

With families across the state scrambling for accommodation, a Sydney vet is throwing open his clinic for those in dire need.

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Bushfire-hit families with injured pets have been inundating vets over the past week as the state prepares to endure another week of horror blazes that have already claimed 18 lives this season.

Residents and their four-legged friends who have lost homes from the mid-north all the way down to Balmoral on the south coast have been left in dire circumstances, struggling to find refuge and temporary pet-friendly accommodation since the fires took hold in early November.

Their plight comes amid the backdrop of families refusing to evacuate and abandon their homes, choosing instead to stay with their animals and defiantly fight the fires themselves.

Vet Sam Kovac with dog Meika in one of the rooms above his Vet clinic, ready to be set up for temporary accommodation for bushfire victims. Picture: John Appleyard

Sydney’s Sam Kovac said his Southern Cross Vet clinics have been treating animals suffering burns and fighting for life after surviving the Green Wattle Creek and Gospers Mountain fires over the Christmas break.

Dr Kovac is now throwing open the doors of his Redfern clinic to families who need somewhere to stay as the crisis continues to unfold.

“We’re seeing people who have refused to leave their properties because they don’t want to let their pets burn,” he said.

Freda Louizos hugs her dog JoJo in Killabakh, near Taree in November. She is one of dozens of pet owners who refused to abandon their pets. Picture Gary Ramage

“They are worried that if they surrender them to a shelter they will be put down, rehomed or lost in the system.

“The entire thing is a tragedy.”

His gesture comes a week after the University of Sydney published sobering findings of the impact the fires have had on the state’s wildlife.

The bottom floor of the Redfern clinic will be open to home families and their pets who fled the fires. Picture: John Appleyard

Dr Kovac has been treating bushfire injured animals over Christmas. Picture: John Appleyard

Professor Chris Dickman had estimated that 480 million animals have perished in the blazes spanning NSW, though on Friday said that figure could actually be substantially higher due to the “conservative” nature of his estimates.

Dr Kovac said the clinic will continue to treat bushfire injured animals for free while the bottom floor of his Redfern clinic served as a makeshift refuge.

“We’ve got room for a few families and their pets,” he said.

“We’ll provide the food and water and it is a secure property.”

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