Galahad’s Animal Sanctuary owner Lynne McAlister says sanctuaries are suffering during drought
A “nightmare” drought has crippled Victorian animal sanctuaries which are barely able to keep up with a lack of rain and rising costs.
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Victorian animal sanctuaries are paying nearly $1000 a week on food as they battle a “nightmare” drought, with fears many could be forced to close.
It comes as Victoria grapples with one of its driest periods on record, recording its warmest April since 1910 — with an average temperature of 23.2C — and its driest May since 2005, with an area-average rainfall of 47.3mm.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, far eastern Gippsland was among the few areas in the state with above average rain in May.
For Lynne McAlister, who owns Galahad Animal Sanctuary in Gisborne, the drought has “crippled” her capacity to feed her 55 animals, with a lack of rain preventing any grass from growing.
She said she paid upwards of $800 a week to hard or supplement feed animals all-year round — which involves manually feeding animals food like biscuits of hay — something she previously only had to do for six months of the year.
“Prior to the drought I would only have to hard feed them for two seasons and the other two they were eating pastures off the ground but over the last two years I have had to hard feed them every day,” she said.
“We haven’t had any rain in the last two winters and it became quite apparent that my grass wasn’t growing, so I wasn’t able to do the usual and let them eat the pasture for two seasons.
“I’m having to feed them hay and you’re just thinking on your feet all the time to make sure they’re OK.”
Ms McAlister said there were times where the only food available at stores was loosened hay which “isn’t ideal” for the guts of her animals which include camels, donkeys, cows, sheep and alpacas.
“You can’t give loosened hay to sheep or quite a lot of animals because it’s so high in protein and so rich,” she said.
Ms McAlister, who also runs a bed and breakfast at the property, has launched an online fundraiser to ensure her sanctuary survives through the drought.
She said her fears are shared across many sanctuaries.
“I’ve never seen so many calls for help,” she said.
“I work full-time and all my salary goes to the care of the animals, you have vet bills and with this (drought) it can really cripple you.
Last year McAlister launched a campaign to rescue camels that were being slaughtered and processed, often turned into pet food.
She has three camels on the site: Milkshare, Catapult and her most recent rescue Harley Quinn which she bought off a camel dairy farm that had shut down.
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