Caring for animals

Marianne Campbell and Jay Madsen have
taken over the RSPCA in Tennant Creek
They explain their motives to BNP. Jay leads off ...

What we're trying to do is have someone available in town, who could look after cruelty issues for animals because there isn't any kind of service at all at the moment for animal welfare.
So we've filled the gap there. The RSPCA in town used to exist but it wasn't doing anything much so we thought if it's already up and running, let's see what we can do.
We got in contact with the people who were previously running it and now here we are. We had an AGM to elect some new office bearers.
At the present, Marianne is the Vice-President and we've got a few other people involved; Stevie Staunton, Wendy Miller, Lee Hill is the Treasurer and the Secretary is Melanie McClair.
So there are a few of us who are running it. We all have the same interests, to have something running for animal welfare in town.
Marianne: And besides animal welfare we're trying to raise money for the RSPCA in general.
We are in contact with the Executive Officer for The Northern Territory in Darwin.
He sends us material and ideas for fundraising. We're trying to raise money in raffles and we're going to have a Million Paws Walk which is a big dog walk, about 3-5 kms with a barbecue at the end in May and we have a few other ideas.
Does the RSPCA give you guidelines to follow or do you have to meet some standard or criteria, or do they just say that you are our official representatives for the Barkly?
Jay: To some extent yes, although we weren't given any formal training. The basic guideline we follow is just to make sure that animals are not mistreated in any way.
I don't think you have to be a brain surgeon to know if an animal is being mistreated or not; and now we're able to do that under the banner of the RSPCA. We get taken more seriously than someone who roams around the streets saying "Hey, you can't hit that dog".
Do you work in with the town vet?
Jay: Yes, we've spoken to Jenny and Andrew and they're aware of what we're doing. They're willing to help us in anyway we need assistance.
What we're trying to do at the moment is assess every case on its individual merit, and then we can send animals to Alice Springs where they've got proper facilities if needs be.
We can hold animals ourselves, but only for a short period, because we just don't have the facilities.
We're basically using our own backyards where we can put them in the shed or yard where it's cool for them until they recover.
We don't have proper facilities because it all comes down to money, which we don't have.
Smaller animals are definitely going to be in need or younger animals and we are going to send them to Alice Springs if we can't find homes locally but that all costs money, so we'll need to fundraise.
If we find an animal that's in a reasonable state of health, we're looking at trying to get home for it pretty quick if we can, because we just don't have the facilities.
As things stand at the present the dog catcher takes most strays up to the pound, where the problem we have is they're not being claimed.
What we want to do is set up a kind of register system where people can know who to contact in the RSPCA locally if they think their dog may have been impounded.
At the moment no system exists to clarify what animals may have been caught or whether your dog was maybe run down on the street.
Dogs should be registered and tagged according to the Local Government shouldn't they?
Jay: They are supposed to be, but that's the problem with most of the camp dogs is that they're not registered and tagged and that makes it difficult to take them back to an owner.
Marianne: They need to be desexed and then it wouldn't be so bad, so we're going to try and address that too.
At the moment registration is quite expensive, so I think nationally the aim is to make the registration cheaper for desexed dogs, to help the problem, but it's different in each state.
Jay: Definitely we would encourage people to have their dogs desexed and perhaps pressure can be put on Council to structure the fees so it makes it easier for people to register dogs and make it cheaper for desexed dogs.
Do you think desexing should become a free operation?
Marianne: I think so, yes - or at least a lot cheaper.
Jay: You're usually looking at about $100 to have an animal desexed. That isn't cheap and so there are lot of people who don't get it done.
But then again, if you really want an animal and you care for it, then surely $100 is not really a lot as an investment to look after your own dog.
It's not really good for a bitch to keep breeding over and over.
A lot of people just take it as a god-given right to have a pet but it's like anything, if you're going to have a pet you have take responsibility for it.
It's all and well and to have your own pet dog but it's not something you can throw into your backyard and then just leave it there.
Dogs need to be walked and exercised on a regular basis. They need to be looked after and loved.
If you're not prepared to spend money on your pet, why bother having it at all.
Isn't there a fine line between mistreatment and thoughtlessness in regard to dogs in town. I know a few who are just used as burglar alarms and never get out?
Jay: As far as the legislation goes, if you have a dog in an enclosed space, it must have a minimum of a 7 metre run if it's tied up. It is probably not enforced a lot of the time. Also it's going to depend on the size of the dog.
It's something that is very hard to enforce. You know, people don't take kindly to you coming around telling them how to look after their pet, but I suppose it's a plea to people to be compassionate and look after their animals.
Animals do suffer.
Marianne: So if we get complaints about dogs howling or crying or not having enough space, that's when we'd have to ring Darwin and get them to ring the owners.
You don't grab a hat and a coat then rush around and knock on their door?
Jay: Not as this stage, but we're hoping to.
Marianne: We're also looking for foster homes; for anybody who would like to look after any sort of animals we have temporarily until we find them homes.
Cats and Dogs only?
Marianne: We can't really look after wildlife - that's a different department. Yes, cats and dogs mainly.
Jay: It would only be on short term basis.
The problem we have is because there are only four or five of us with facilities, that is our own backyards and this makes it limited. If anyone is willing to help out that would be great.
Who do they contact?
Jay: They can contact myself, Jay Madsen and Marianne, on our home telephone number: 8962 2252 and they can leave a message on our answering machine and we'll definitely get back to them.
Alternatively Marianne can be contacted during business hours on 8962 2205.
Marianne: If anybody's interested in any merchandise, we sell that as well.
What sort of merchandise? T-shirts, caps, jigsaws and towels and all sorts of things. We get it direct from Darwin or Victoria to raise money for the RSPCA.
Jay: It's still a very new area for us as well but we're proud to say at this stage, we've had two successful placements of animals.
One was a small puppy dog found wandering around the streets, which was quite disgusting.
Someone, when the dog was very small, had put a choke-ch#ain around his neck and was never taken off.
He had grown into it and it was digging in and welting into his neck.
It was only by chance that Marianne had stopped to give him a pat. God knows how long it would have been there, the chain was under a collar so you couldn't see it.
Once it was removed the skin was exposed and red raw The way the dog was, he probably would have been dead in a very short time by either choking to death or by infection.
We also successfully placed a little kitten - so 100% success stories so far.
Hopefully it stays like that.Þ