14/06/2024
UPDATE! Please sign the petition https://chng.it/7WB55NnSSD
KEVIN’S STORY! We were contacted by a lady on Tuesday night at 9pm who had three hungry cats visit her house in Burwood. Kevin was a sprightly healthy friendly boy probably about 8-10 months old and had a congenital foot deformity from birth, which you can see below. It didn’t seem to bother him. We organised to help Kevin and the other mum and baby and asked her to keep feeding the trio and keep them inside. Kevin didn’t have a name but we owed it to him to give him one and respect his memory.
Unfortunately she was impatient and at 9am on Wednesday morning she contacted RSPCA NSW to come and get him. They had a vehicle in the area and picked Kevin up from the lady and told her that his foot was the result of a birth defect and they would probably kill him as a last resort. They would not take the mother and kitten (wearing a jumper) that was with him (luckily as it turned out). We surmise they were a neighbours cats looking for food.
We started posting for assistance for Kevin and his two little friends on Wednesday night not knowing the RSPCA had already swooped in. The lady who was caring for them told me after we posted and we had arranged to assist her, that she had called RSPCA and they had come and taken Kevin but not the others.
As it was too late to contact RSPCA on Wednesday night, our volunteer Lesley phoned them around 8.30am Thursday morning asking if he was alive and that we would take him into our care. She was told by the receptionist he was at their Yagoona shelter and she would update her by calling her at 10.30am. She didn’t say any more than that. Lesley never got the call. At 11am Lesley phoned again and the receptionist she spoke to was on another call and so she left her details asking for the receptionist to call her. At 2pm yesterday Lesley still hadn’t heard from them so she called and found out they had killed Kevin less than 24 hours in their care. WE ARE ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATED! 😡😡
We then phoned RSPCA immediately as we got the text from Lesley that he was dead. 😩ðŸ˜
The response from the receptionist was that he wasn’t microchipped or registered as the justification for killing him. I reminded her that RSPCA as with all animal shelters has an obligation under the law to hold stray animals for 7 days. I asked to escalate the matter and asked to speak to management. She said someone would call us. We didn’t receive a call so phoned again later yesterday afternoon only to be assured someone would call us. WE ARE STILL WAITING.
Just to give you context Sydney Street Cats receives upto 5 referral calls each day from RSPCA NSW asking people to contact us to rescue their cats. We are a one man band volunteer operation who punch well above our weight rescuing cats. We are NO KILL and have rescued 1,200 street cats in 10 years and have only had to put a handful of cats to sleep over the years through end of life or being mortally injured. We treat every cat that is injured or sick we don’t spare any expense they all go on to live their best lives.
RSPCA NSW kill 28% of cats that come into its shelter (over 4,000 in 2023). They receive $65million in annual revenue and has $136million in cash reserves and a brand new $35million shelter in Yagoona. They have hundreds of paid staff members and a CEO purportedly on $500,000 a year. People tell me there never seems to be animals there.
We are still waiting to hear from you on why you thought Kevin’s life was not worth anything RSPCA!! And why you did not hold him for 7 days as per the law. He is not feral and his foot is easily treatable.
Who holds RSPCA to account when they fail to help animals when we in rescue work so hard around the clock giving our own money and resources to stop animals ending up there and giving them the best chance to live. Because at the end of the day that’s what any animal wants. It’s up to us to make that happen.
DO BETTER RSPCA! We won’t let this rest and will keep going for Kevin. We love you Kevin💕😢sleep well you beautiful boy
NSW government contacts to complain about RSPCA NSW
EMAIL/ CONTACTS – please add your Mayor and Councilors
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
------------ text in email to include the following ------------
To: The Hon. Ron Hoenig MP Minister for Local Government,
The Hon. Emma HURST, MLC (Chair, Animal Welfare Committee),
Ms Abigail BOYD, MLC (Substitute Member, Portfolio Committee No. 8 - Customer Service, for Pounds in New South Wales)
