A council in New South Wales made the decision to ‘protect its community from Covid-19 transmission’ and shot the rescue dogs. One of the dogs had just given birth when she was killed
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Rescue dogs ready for adoption have been shot dead “because of coronavirus restrictions.”
The dogs were killed by a council to stop people travelling to pick them up and catching the disease.
One of the dogs had just given birth when she was shot dead.
Bourke Shire Council in New South Wales in Australia told a local watchdog they took the decision “to protect its employees and community from the risk of Covid transmission.”
The decision has been hit with outrage and has even prompted a government probe.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Animal Liberation campaign manager Lisa Ryan said: “We are deeply distressed and completely appalled by this callous dog shooting.
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“We totally reject council’s unacceptable justifications that this killing was apparently undertaken as part of a Covid-safe plan.”
A spokesman for the Office of Local Government (OLG) said: “OLG has been informed that the council decided to take this course of action to protect its employees and community, including vulnerable Aboriginal populations, from the risk of Covid-19 transmission.”
New South Wales has seen a rise in Delta variant infections and despite first seeing a low number of Covid transmissions, now has a record 830 locally-acquired cases in one day on Sunday. It has also seen a further three deaths.
There are no local coronavirus cases in the town of Cobar where the shelter is based.
The Office of Local Government says it is now looking at the circumstances of the incident to see whether companion and animal cruelty laws were broken.
A member of the Rural Outback Respite/Rescue declined to comment.
The council has also not yet responded to local media enquiries.
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A source close to the shelter’s volunteers said they were “distressed” and had “Covid-safe measures in place to handle the dogs.”
A spokeswoman for Greens Animal Welfare, Abigail Boyd accused the Government of “twiddling its thumbs on animal welfare issues while more animals are being killed.”
Local government minister Shelley Hancock has previously faced questions in Parliament over the shooting of animals in council pounds, stating she did not know about it. In March she said: “If it was a practice, I would be concerned about it – if it was a cat or a dog.”
She later revealed that councils are not required by law to tell the Government how they killed animals in their care.
The Office of Local Government spokesman said it had issued advice to all councils about operating pounds during the coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns, including procedures to keep staff and volunteers safe.
They said councils are “encouraged” to continue to work with re-homing organisations and volunteers to care for animals, providing this could be done in line with advice from New South Wales Health.
Pounds and shelters were permitted to remain open to the public and people involved in animal welfare, and staff were considered authorised or essential workers in areas in lockdown.
