A five-year agreement, originally held between Delungra no-kill shelter Gwydir Park Refuge and the council has expired. Now Gwydir Park co-owner Geoff Johnson said are receiving volumes of calls about found animals they have had to redirect to the pound. They can accept owner-surrendered animals at no cost, but if the person finds an animal and does not own it, they must ring Inverell Shire. 

“They must take them back to the Inverell council or let them go,” Mr Johnson said.

“People are abusing us – we’re trying to do the right thing, to help the council out, but they don’t seem to want it, and that’s all I can say.”

He said the shelter is receiving 20 or more calls a week from people reacting with varying levels of concern they cannot bring in the strays or injured animals they have found. 

“I know people are getting upset, but I just tell them – we can’t take them,” Mr Johnson said.

He said they are trying to comply with the rules, but said the refuge’s history working with council had soured, and he was unwilling to approach Inverell Shire about reinstating the agreement. 

“They can put anything to me and I’ll look at it, but I won’t go to them,” Mr Johnson said. “We’re trying to do the right thing by the community, and the council are hog-tying us. I don’t care about the people, it’s the animals, they’re the ones who bloody suffer. They can’t ask for help.” 

Council environment compliance co-ordinator Phil Sutton said in a statement council did have a previous agreement with the refuge, where they acted as an approved premise, granted in January 2010.

Mr Johnson said in that time, they would hold ownerless, injured or found animals for council for the duration of the standard period, after which time, if the owner was not located or came forward, Gwydir Park would retain the animal indefinitely for an appropriate new home, or foster permanently if the animal was unsuitable for ownership.

“I’d just take them here and hold them for the council if that’s what they want, or take them in find out who the owner is, chase up the microchips. Some of these dogs are valuable dogs, and people love them,” Mr Johnson said. 

Mr Sutton said in his statement non-microchipped animals are held for seven days, and those microchipped are retained for 14 days.

He said council tries to “rehome as many of the impounded animals as possible though partnerships with the Animal Welfare League in Moree and RSPCA volunteers in Inverell”, though some animals are unable to find new homes due to issues of temperament. 

Resident Shirley Read recently rang Gwydir Park Refuge to ask if they would accept two kittens she has fed since late 2016.  

“There is an old vision-impaired cat that gets around, and we being the suckers, we always feed him, and walked out to feed him one morning and here’s these three kittens with him, and they were suckling him, and everything – a tom cat, and he seemed like he adopted them,” she said. 

“They were poor and skinny, and we just started feeding them.”

The kittens stayed with Shirley, and one disappeared. She and her son have been feeding and handling the two every since, but found it more than she could afford to feed and desex them both.

“It’s just too many cats. I can’t afford them,” she said.

She said she was told by Geoff in order to surrender them to the refuge, in compliance with council’s regulation, they would have to be microchipped, registered in her name.

“You’re looking at about $2000, which is money I just haven’t got,” she said. “If I could afford them, I’d keep them no worries at all because they’re just dear little cats, and I couldn’t stand to think anything would happen to them.”

Despite the situation, Ms Read said she was unwilling to turn the kittens over to the pound.

“Because they gas them,” she said firmly. “No, I couldn’t do it. I’d rather go without myself a bit, to keep them.”

Another woman, who asked not to be identified, contacted The Inverell Times, and said she has been assisting someone feeding a cat and kittens.

She said they needed help because the friend could not keep them, but when they phoned Gwydir Park, they were directed by Mr Johnson to phone Inverell council.

“Because they’ve been dumped – apparently we’ve got to have proof of ownership,” she said. “Well, she really isn’t the owner because she’s just been feeding them because they were starving.”

The woman said she had organised animals for Gwydir Park to collect in the past. “A little stray cat came to my house, and it was injured, and I just rang Geoff and he came and picked her up, and I think they’ve still got her actually – she’s a special little one of theirs,” she said.

She said phoning the Inverell pound was not an option in her estimation. “Because I want them re-homed, and they put them in the pound,” she said.

“They won’t worry about them; they won’t care. I know they have to (euthanise the animals), too, if they can’t rehouse them.

“But here’s a man who’s willing to take these animals for nothing and try to rehouse them, and now they have their own hospital to do the desexing, and it’s absolutely brilliant, and there’s someone who doesn’t like what he’s doing, or something, and he’s always got obstacles in front of him, and in the end, the poor little cats and dogs are just getting put down and could go to loving homes.”

Mr Johnson felt the abandoned or lost animals should not pay a fatal price. Though the drop in refuge animals did allow them breathing space, both he and his partner Pat Carmody are frustrated. 

“Answering calls at 9 o’clock and 10 o’clock at night, but we didn’t mind doing it. (Now) we get phone calls and abuse, and it’s hard. We’re a refuge, so what’s the good of us?”