Shelter seeks help to keep animals warm

WITH winter setting in, keeping warm becomes a priority and the Bendigo Animal Relief Centre is seeking help with its efforts to do just that for its tenants.

The centre has put the call out for donations of thick bedding in the form of blankets and doonas to cope with an increasing number of dogs – particularly puppies – coming through the doors.

According to operations manager Fra Atyeo, the centre is approaching capacity and needs the community’s assistance to keep the cold out for its animals.

“We’re seeing an incredibly high number of dogs coming through the shelter,” Ms Atyeo said. “We’ve got a lot of puppies and puppies make a hell of a mess, so we go through a lot of blankets.”

If anyone wants to help out, they can drop off blankets or doonas at collection bins in the car park, or make personal deliveries to the Piper Lane centre in East Bendigo during business hours.

Ms Atyeo said the centre was receiving increasing numbers of surrendered animals compared to previous years, which resulted in the corresponding greater demand for warm bedding.

She said the increase was not due to a single factor, but was being caused by a number of circumstances.

Economic issues and changes in living arrangements are among the reasons why pets are being surrendered, she said, and the COVID-influenced rush for pets also would have played a part.

“We’ve kind of hit that ceiling,” Ms Atyeo said. “We knew we wouldn’t be able to maintain the rehoming rates we had over COVID, and everyone that can take a pet now has a pet.

“Another problem is that people could be moving back in with family or friends due to economic necessity.

“It’s not necessarily that the pet in itself is too expensive. It’s because of everything else going on and all these secondary reasons that are putting people in the position where they have to surrender their pets.

“It’s very sad.”

Ms Atyeo stressed that pillows, bedsheets or items of clothing were not suitable for the animals when washing and cleaning were taken into account.

The centre was trying to work with the community to help pet owners hang on to their animals longer, she said.