BLACKTOWN POUND: An Eyewitness Account from a Cat Liberationist

By Claudette Vaughan

Click here to see the current photos: Blacktown Pound - A Living Auschwitz

Abolitionist: What have you witnessed at Blacktown Pound… can you talk about that please?

Anon: One cat called Simba that I liberated from Blacktown Pound I could tell was in a lot of discomfort and pain. He was very dehydrated and it was a very hot day. When I took him I rushed him straight to a vet clinic. This cat was so severely emasculated from every parasite I knew of with my work involving cats, it was even shocking to me. All of these types of things could have been treated when he was first brought into Blacktown Pound for around $1.00. That was sheer neglect on their part.

The animals that are taken to Blacktown Pound are normally strays. Any animals that are surrendered or any of the animals that come straight from a home are automatically destroyed. The animals that are impounded normally come from the street and experience some traumatic experience for having been put in the pound. They weren’t in a good state to begin with.

When they are there they are basically exposed to a lot of other stressed animals. They are exposed to diseases. There’s very little quarantine procedure there. They are bombarded with all different kinds of elements. They get very ill and very sick. Normally these animals I see is on their ‘Due Date’ which is the day they are due to be destroyed, collected or re-homed. By the time I get them they have already been impounded for the minimum of 7 days.

They are very unhappy animals and they are very sick animals. In their impounding period they do not receive any veterinary treatment so if they go in sick they stay sick until they are either killed, re-homed or rescued.

Once, one afternoon I was at Blacktown Pound to rescue animals and unfortunately happened to be there at the same time that they were killing animals. I saw them going from crushed cage to crushed cage collecting animals. There was one very frightened ginger tom. He didn’t want to come down from the cattery. He hooked his claws into the wire and I saw them grap him by his tail and pull him down about 2-3 metres. He lost his claws in the door. They picked him up by his tail and dropped him upside down into a crushed cage and the man said, “You’re next mate!”

That’s completely unacceptable.

I suppose when you are dealing with this level of suffering on a daily basis then, in order to survive you have to desensitise yourself to it in a way but that shouldn’t be an excuse for what’s happening there.

Some of these animals that we are seeing had tremendous health problems. They come to us with the flu, sometimes fatal, not vaccinated, they have ring-worms, parasites. All these things would have been so easy to treat but while neglected can be serious and often life-threatening.

Abolitionist: What else have you seen?

Anon: I’ve seen people dragging dogs. I’ve seen people kicking dogs. I’ve seen them not interacting with them appropriately. With scared animals you have to be trained to know how they are going to respond and how they are going to behave and to expect that from them. To antagonise or to be unsympathetic towards what they are going through.

Inappropriate handling is a big problem.

I think their job would be much better if they allowed themselves to feel some compassion for the non-human animal kingdom.

Another thing: The Pound placed a kitten with a cat who had recently lost her litter in the hope that she would become a surrogate mother to her which didn’t work out. This is a situation at the best of times that you really have to monitor and make sure that it’s working out. They didn’t monitor this pair. By the time the rescuers arrived – 4-5 days later – 2 of the kittens had actually drowned in their own faeces and the others were just surviving.

Abolitionist: Are they not being vaccinated because of an attitude that they are going to be dead in 7 days anyway so why bother?

Anon: Basically, yes.

Abolitionist: Tell us about the cat crusher.

Anon: There’s a cage which is used in pounds called the Crush Cage. It’s a rectangular piece of metal where the animal is placed. The size of the cage collapses inwards to fit the size of the animal making it easier to inject them with the chemical which eventually kills them.

Abolitionist: Is this like a restraint contraption?

Anon: Yes. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. One of the days that I’ve been there to rescue animals I’ve seen long lines of cats, waiting {for their turn} in crushed cages to be destroyed.

Abolitionist: What do you want to occur? What’s the ideal situation for you regarding all you have spoken about and seen at Blacktown Pound?

Anon: The ideal situation is no animal, human or non-human deserves to die. Every animal deserves the right and chance to live and have a good life.

Abolitionist: Have you spoken to Blacktown Pound about what you have witnessed?

Anon: On one occasion when I was there I saw a cat that had obviously been there for some hours. She was hunched over and was trying to balance herself on the slaps of wire which is on the bottom of the crushed cage. She was very uncomfortable, very distressed, very, very unwell and had just been left there. I had the idea that I would put a towel beneath her body in the cage, just to provide alittle comfort before she was killed

When I asked the woman from the Blacktown Pound about her she warned me that if I proceeded to make any criticism on the way the animals were being kept, I would not be allowed back into the pound to rescue animals.

It’s been very difficult to balance making complaints with constructive criticism and wanting to continue rescuing the animals by being allowed to go in there.

Abolitionist: Has there been any attempts to stop you from rescuing pound animals?

Anon: No there hasn’t. Some people try to discourage you from taking what they call ‘feral’ animals – which is effectively animals that are scared or are not socialised or have been through such trauma that they are terrified of human beings – I’m actually really surprised that any of the animals aren’t terrified of humans. There still are animals that come up to the cage and look to be cuddled and comforted by the same species that put them in that condition in the first place.

Abolitionist: Have you rescued any animals lately in this 40 degrees heat?

Anon: I’ve been there before during summer and I have seen animals there suffering. The cages that the animals are kept in are not in an environment where the temperatures are controlled. I have seen animals dying there from general neglect.

Abolitionist: Correct me if I am wrong but the animals get hosed down twice a day and are left there, in all weather conditions, to dry off. Is that right?

Anon: Yes. I’ve seen a few horrible things. The dogs are in concrete enclosures with a wire front. It’s a barren cell with no enrichment and the only piece of furniture is a low steel mesh table which is there for sleeping on. In Blacktown Pound they don’t believe in bedding.

Although the Council has tried to make goodwill donations of blankets they are just thrown out. The bedding I have seen is normally garage bags for the cats and kittens but they do hose the kennels out twice a day with the dogs in there. There’s no place where the dogs are taken out. They are hosed down while the animals are in there. I have seen dogs absolutely drenched in the middle of winter with their faces pressed into the corners of the cage, shivering. Just absolutely broken.

The first dog that I rescued there was very unwell which is why I put my name on him. I wanted to get him as quickly as possible to a vet but I didn’t realise how sick he was and they wanted to put him through their de-sexing program. They have a free de-sexing program there – something they worked out with Sydney University. He went through that program.

When they brought him back I went to pick him up 2 days later and he was put back in a cell and hosed out twice a day like every other dog. He developed a severe infection and was paralyzed from that infection in his womb. During that time, because of the infection he wasn’t able to make his way to the food bowl or water bowl. By the time I arrived to pick him up he had to get rushed to an emergency vet and treated amongst other things for dehydration.

Abolitionist: Why did you decide to speak out?

Anon: Because people need to know the truth of the conditions of how these animals are being kept in. It is so unacceptable – it’s a nightmare situation. Animals that are being taken from our community which is the responsibly of the community to care for are being put basically in the middle of nowhere – Blacktown Pound – like any rubbish dump – and they are being put into a holding facility where there is no concern for their well-being and they are simply being killed.

Five or six years ago they would have been sold to a laboratory. It is a means to an end to them. There’s no concern for what they have been through and what they are going through.

Abolitionist: Why single out Blacktown Pound? Have you asked them why they are not a no-kill pound?

Anon: The biggest problem that sets Blacktown in another league from any other Sydney pounds is Blacktown Pound refuse to take a pro-active stance to rescue. They don’t promote rescue.

The animals that are there could be any other inanimate lost property. They don’t seem to have much regard for animals in their care as the cat or dog’s being a living, feeling creature.

Blacktown Pound is a Mega Pound and this is one of its major problems. We are taking animals out of the community and putting them into the middle of nowhere which is unsuitable for the animals. It’s not even set up where animals can be kept for a long period of time.

There is one council there that believes they are a low kill council – they try to hold the animals there for a longer period of time for rehoming purposes and because of that there is now a phase being used by these councils and its “Kennels Matter”.

So these poor dogs that are being put into miserable and unsuitable to hold an animal for a week, let alone 4 months – at the end of that period the dogs have gone insane or they believe they have to be destroyed on “humane” grounds.

If these places are run by Councils they are not allowed to bring volunteers in. All of the dogs are housed together so if I went in as a volunteer for Ryde Council and I got bitten from a dog from Holoway Council then I guess Ryde Council are libel.

They cannot have volunteers which means the dogs aren’t walked, the animals aren’t comforted, there’s no socialisation there- there’s only terrified animals waiting to die.

Abolitionist: Is this interview going to jeopardize your relationship with them or do you think that your relationship with them has already been broken by them through their lack of fore-sight and care?

Anon: My relationship with them was always unbalanced. They had all the control and I was merely constricted in having a say in what they are doing. In my silence was I supporting them in what they were doing?

I also sincerely believe they are not set up for rescue. The environment is inappropriate. There is no website showing the animals off to the general public. Their records are inaccurate and are not kept up-to-date so it’s very difficult to trace an animal. Animals go missing. They can disappear off the face of the earth in their system.

I don’t think Blacktown Pound sees its reason for being there to facilitate animal rescue and re-homing. There’s no possibility for volunteers. The hours that they are open is absolutely minimal. Animals are sick when they arrive and are not treated. A lot of the animals I have rescued die in the first night of their rescue because they are so ill.

So I think if we really want to help these animals and facilitate a good rescue scheme we have to change the environment and attitude of those that are perpetuating the myth of animal care and rescue.

Abolitionist: You yourself do cat rescue and support cat colonies (trap-neuter-return - TNR) for free-living cats. What advise can you provide people with who want to do cat rescue?

Anon: There are 2 sides of the coin for free-living cats. You cannot walk past an animal that is hungry and is dependant upon you for some food but at the same time you really shouldn’t feed without de-sexing them either (so not to perpetuate this horrible cycle of an unsustainable population). I think the first thing people should do is leave food but they should then contact their local vet clinic to organise/subsidise free desexing. They should also get involved with the community and promote the subject in the interest of these cats. It’s a reality in urban environments that we can’t ignore.

We know from the research from right around the world that trap and kill doesn’t work. It’s unsustainable and it’s failed. It promotes the view that animals are disposable and creates a view that animals are a problem, and they are not. We need to change our attitude and how we perceive these animals.

Abolitionist: And you obviously support TNR?

Anon: It’s a wonderful thing and I’ve seen very unwell animals blossom into beautiful animals through these programs.

Abolitionist: What message would you like to send to Blacktown Pound when they read this on our website?

Anon: Enough is Enough! I’d say that Blacktown Pound are not wholly to blame for what’s gone on here. This is a situation that has occurred and it’s the responsibly of the community to be pro-active and be prepared to make a difference to a non-human animal’s life. Having said that this Mega-Pound System is not working. They must find another way so animals in their care are provided for with love and compassion.