Pet cats and dogs cannot get coronavirus - that's the message from Animal Rights and Rescue (AARG) Group’s rescue centre manager Suzanne Lavis.

In other places, people have been dumping pets due to misguided fears from their owners, but luckily in Lismore, that's not the case. However, the numbers of pets being surrendered to AARG on a daily basis hasn’t decreased and the community service is still receiving six to seven ‘surrender’ phone calls a day, as well as experiencing a reduction in financial donations.

Volunteers

Suzanne also said the already stretched volunteer-run service is about to find itself short of volunteers as the coronavirus situation develops. 

Fifth case of coronavirus confirmed in Northern Rivers

“We just received a call from TAFE advising that all their student placements have been suspended, due to insurance company concerns relating to Covid-19,” Suzanne said. 

“So, we may find ourselves very short of volunteers from next Monday. Due to this shortage of volunteers, we may have to stop the number of new animals we can take into care.”

Suzanne said that many of the people who call AAEG looking to find new homes for their pets have situations that can be rectified without having to surrender their animals.

Dog strategies

“Someone might ring saying their dog keeps escaping or chewing things and help them work out what’s going on,” she said. “Maybe there’s been a change in the family, or a new child arrives which can be affecting the animal’s behaviour, or someone has taken in a headstrong dog that isn’t right for their family. 

“We ask people to call back if the suggested strategies don’t work, and can recommend dog trainers who can help.

While Winter is a quieter time for the numbers of cats being surrendered (due to them not breeding), Suzanne said it’s not just dogs and cats, but chickens, goats, sheep and pigs that are being surrendered.

“When the Lismore Pound gets full, they transfer animals to Ballina and call us and ask to help,” Suzanne said. 

“We can squeeze in a couple more little dogs, but it’s harder with bigger dogs."

Donations

Suzanne said AARG have noticed money donations have dropped dramatically since floods, fires and now coronavirus has impacted on the local area. 

“We are struggling financially to pay our vet bills,” she said. “This month one vet bill alone cost us $5,000.

“It’s getting harder and it would be great if someone had time to do some fundraising for us. 

Crisis pens needed

“We have some crisis pens we’d like to finish building for elderly or homeless dogs who we are minding until we can sort something out. If we had more pens, we could have helped more animals caught in fire and floods.”

AARG rescues and rehabilitates (mostly) domestic animals and has been providing a service to the people and animals of the Lismore area for 25 years.

The service, based in Lismore Industrial Estate also helps look after animals if people go into hospital, jail or overseas, nursing homes, hospices, we can also help them too.

The service is 100% no kill and all animals up for adoption have been rehabilitated, desexed and microchipped. 

Help out or adopt

If you want to help out in any way with AARG, whether volunteering to care for animals or help raise money, visit the website https://www.animalrights.org.au 

AARG also has a number of animal in care needing homes, such as Calvin the dog (pictured above). If you'd like to adopt him, visit https://www.animalrights.org.au/pets/1701/CALVIN