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Christmas Appeal launches in the face of an uncertain future
The Dogs’ Homes of Tasmania have launched their annual Christmas Appeal with the ambitious goal of raising $150,000 to meet some of the most difficult circumstances in the shelters’ 73-year history.
“It’s more expensive for us to keep our doors open than it ever was,” Dogs’ Homes CEO Mark Wild said. “We are almost entirely dependent on the generosity of the Tasmanian community to fund our operations.”
The cost of living crisis has had an impact on Tasmania’s largest dog welfare charity in terms of operational expenses and the cost of animal care.
“We are seeing more dogs being surrendered because their owners can’t afford the cost of veterinary care,” Mark said. He said surrender figures were only slightly up on the previous year: “But it’s the types of dogs coming through and the reasons for surrendering that have changed,” he said.
“We’re seeing a lot of sick and older dogs and that is putting pressure on us because they need surgery, they need teeth removed, they need arthritis care … These require more of our resources to care for them: not just surgery but recovery and healing time, and often time in foster care.”
An example is Gremlin, a tiny 10-year-old Terrier x found wandering the streets of Launceston in a terrible state. The most serious issue was Gremlin’s badly infected eye, which was beyond saving.
But after dental work, hernia surgery, eye removal and medication, the staff, volunteers and a kind-hearted foster carer nursed Gremlin back to health. She was quickly adopted, renamed Jessie, and now lives happily with a fur sibling in her forever home.
The Dogs’ Homes are calling out to the dog-loving community in Tasmania to dig deep this Christmas to help us keep our doors open for Tasmania’s lost and unwanted dogs for another 73 years.
