City gets cash for new shelter – State budget 2022

THE Ballarat Animal Shelter is set to move into a new home with the State Government funding $11.5 million for a new facility at spart of last week’s budget.

Minister for Agriculture, Mary-Anne Thomas, visited the City of Ballarat-run shelter’s current Alfredton building, a former abattoir, and said the facilities are “not fit for purpose.”

“Building a new shelter is so important not just for the 2000 animals that pass through the shelter every year, but for the up to 20 people who work here,” she said.

“The new animal shelter will provide much better facilities for those cats and dogs that find their way here to the shelter, but also will provide some additional services that are so important for our community.”

The new building will be based at Mitchell Park, and it is hoped that construction will begin later this year with the view to open in 2023.

City of Ballarat’s coordinator of animal services, Clare Douglas-Haynes, said the new site will boost the shelter’s capabilities and allow for a more efficient infection control and a turnover of animals.

“Disease spreads really quickly here, so we spend too much time cleaning here and not enough time for enrichment,” she said.

“We’re hoping to fit around 200 cats and around 50 dogs, and they’ll have access to indoors and outdoors.”

The new site will also aim to improve the shelter’s capacities for crisis accommodation and the community boarding of animals.

With the increased capacity to hold an additional 100 animals and a greater reach across the surrounding regions, Ms Douglas-Haynes said the new building will be “up-to-date” in every way.

“We actually won an award for most outstanding council-run animal shelter, and if we could do that in this sort of place, what we could do in a new facility is amazing,” she said.