The Lost Dogs’ Home is calling on Victorians to open their hearts and homes to their dogs as capacity has officially hit their Cranbourne and North Melbourne shelters.
To encourage more adoptions, between Friday 12 and 19 August, the Home will be reducing its adoption fees for most dogs, for a week.
The Home’s Spokesperson Suzana Talevski said although winter was a traditionally slower time for adoptions, there appeared to be multiple factors resulting in more dogs being available for adoption this year.
‘’It appears it’s a combination of the winter chill keeping people away, the rising cost of living and the owners no longer having the time to care for their animals,” Ms Talevski said.
“We currently have more than 50 dogs ready for adoption with more arriving every day.
‘’While we are desperately trying to place as many of these beautiful animals in foster care while they wait for their perfect match, we would much prefer they were in a permanent and loving home.’’
‘’With appointments no longer necessary across our two shelters, families and individuals are encouraged to pop down to adoption centres, where our staff will be able to match you with one of our animals.”
The Home has this week released data citing the top five reasons Melbournians have listed for surrendering their pets.
They are:
– No longer able or willing to care for this animal
– Can no longer afford to care for the animal
– Moving/no pets allowed
– No time for animal anymore
– Behaviour issues of animal
‘’We expect this week to be very popular and with that in mind we ask anyone visiting our shelters to have some patience when waiting to meet an animal,” Ms Talevski said.
“Any kind of aggression or violence towards our staff will not be tolerated.’’
The Lost Dogs’ home in Cranbourne is located at 920 Thompsons Road Cranbourne West.
