Mornington
Morn ingto n
29 November
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A growing memorial to Mornington’s war losses THE Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove is shown the path at the centre of a new avenue of honour that has been planted at Mornington Secondary College. The 12 seedlings that will form the basis of the avenue have been propagated with seeds from the Gallipoli Lone Pine obtained through the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Principal Linda Stanton said the idea for the avenue came from the students after attending a dawn service and Lone Pine commemoration on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey. “New avenue honours war dead” Page 8 Picture: Yanni
Protesters call to end cat kill By Danielle Kutchel ANIMAL advocates are protesting against the number of cats being killed after being held at Mornington Peninsula Shire’s Community Animal Shelter. Around 25 people from across Melbourne attended the rally on Sunday 20 November at the Watt Rd pound. Many are in animal rescue groups or advocacy work and used the time to discuss best practice management with colleagues. The shelter, which holds animals
found wandering on the peninsula, has been criticised for its alleged high-kill rates, barriers to adoption and limited public opening hours. Rally organiser Rosy Fischer, a former volunteer at the pound, said she spoke out “after witnessing an apparent lack of interest from shelter management in facilitating adoption of unclaimed animals and high kill rates of impounded cats”. “The rally was to highlight the fact that very few animals are listed for
adoption, the shelter is closed to the public and potential adopters have to go through a long-winded adoption process,” she said. “These practices make it difficult for animals to be reclaimed or rehomed from the facility and can lead to higher rates of euthanasia.” The main aim of the rally was to achieve a no-kill shelter, Ms Fischer said. She said no-kill shelters have a euthanasia rate of 10 per cent or less,
meaning most impounded animals are reclaimed or rehomed. Euthanasia is a last resort and animals are treated and rehabilitated before being marketed for adoption. Ms Fischer said this was not the case at the Mornington shelter. “I have seen healthy, rehomable cats taken away to be killed to make room for other cats coming in,” she said. “In their statistics the shelter says only feral or very sick cats are euthanised, which is false.”
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Many of those attending were shocked the pound is not open [on a come-one, come-all basis] to the public, Ms Fischer said. She told the rally she had seen animals left without water and new arrivals not checked for microchips or assessed for potentially contagious health issues. She said some of the violations contravened the Victorian Code of Practice for the Operation of Shelters and Pounds. Continued Page 10