About 18 months ago the Rescue coordinator of the Anatolian Shepherd club went to Mildura as part of a visit to country areas to search out Anatolian shepherds. On a further visit there for work she made contact with Colin Sweet and Gary Pretty of the Council who were involved with the pound , and found out the grim situation for a dog surrendered or found as a stray. Despite the best efforts of council workers only one in five dogs was reclaimed and nearly all the rest were put down.

There is no animal shelter for hundreds of kilometres. So if an elderly lady has to move out of her home and can’t take her dog with her, unless family or friend take it, or she has it euthanased, the pound is the only other choice.

The rescue coordinator had been involved with other dog rescue groups for a couple of years and decided to see what she could do to change the situation. She involved a fellow rescuer from the Victorian Dog Rescue Group, and together they began to bring dogs down to Mildura for rehoming. This was the beginning of the Drought Dogs Program.

Mildura is more than 500 kms from Melbourne and no commercial dog transporters have it on regular route. The DDP paid petrol and accommodation money for fellow dog lovers to drive there and back . They also found a willing local person to go in to the pound to help assess the dog’s suitability for rehoming.

Now in January 2008 the program is going full strength. From a slow start, more than 200 dogs as well as about 50 cats have been saved to date, with increased numbers now being brought down. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of the Supervisor, Gary Pretty, who has gone out of his way to make this program feasible. Gary also emailed local council staff to see if they were interested in helping and now there is a local foster care program involved as well. The DDP also placed an ad in the local paper. The response was fantastic. Even better, Gary, and another Council worker, Carolyn Dufty, are organising their own group to help rescue animals in the Mildura area – the Sunraysia Animal Rehoming Group.

Now, local dogs rescued by the DDP are being kept in the community after their vet work is done until transport to Melbourne can be organised. This often takes the form of a Mildura local driving to Bendigo and meeting a person driving up from Melbourne. Five or more dogs change hands, and are brought back to Melbourne where they are distributed to local foster carers. Or someone coming to Melbourne on business or for a holiday may bring a dog with them and it is collected by a DDP volunteers. The dogs are then advertised on sites such as this one or www.petrescue.com.au. Rigbys Rescue, Luvalab and Melbourne Dog Rescue are other groups that assist by taking some of the dogs. And the Australian Animal Protection Society have been indispensable in providing backup and care for further dogs.

We are really excited by how much the local community has supported the DDP program, and it is quite inspirational
that people so far apart can work together to save innocent dogs’ lives with absolutely no benefit to themselves, apart from the satisfaction that they have given a second chance to a dog that would otherwise be euthanased.