We request that Blue Mountains City Council (BMCC), in NSW, reinstate the full animal shelter facilities at the Mort St Katoomba Animal Care Centre, that NSW RSPCA return all proceeds, from the sale of the two Blue Mountains shops, to run this shelter and that this facility is called ‘The Silvia Ford Animal Shelter’.

From 1976, the people of the Blue Mountains (BM) under Silvia Ford’s leadership funded, oversaw the building and management of the ‘50 dog kennel and cat house (plus other animals and birds)’ Mort St shelter; and purchased and ran two BM shops at a profit to fund this Facility. Silvia Ford managed that facility in profit for 22 years until 2002 when she retired. 

NSW RSPCA took over management of the Mort St Katoomba shelter after Ms Ford retired. NSW RSPCA sold the two shops that BM residents had funded and absorbed the money into state RSPCA coffers. 

In 2014, Steve Coleman CEO of NSW RSPCA, announced that they were going to close the Mort St Shelter. Silvia Ford came out of retirement and roused the Blue Mountains people to fight back; we stopped this closure. 

In 2023, Steve Coleman CEO of NSW RSPCA, again announced that they were going to close the Mort St Shelter. Silvia Ford again incited a public outcry so that with MP Trish Doyle’s help, the BMCC received the Mort St Animal shelter from NSW RSPCA for $1. At that time, BMCC was committed to ensuring that Silvia Ford’s legacy - of having a large animal shelter and a no kill facility in the Blue Mountains - was honoured.  

In the Gazette article of July 2023 – ‘Mr Coleman said the shelter had run at a loss of $300,000 to $500,000 a year’.  Mr Coleman doesn’t seem to understand what a charity is or what it does – “We, the public, give the RSPCA from 60 to 80 million dollars a year and you, Mr Coleman, spend that money running the shelters all around the state.” As Silvia said in 2023 “When I retired in 2002, the Blue Mountains shelter was self-funded and a model shelter. What happened between then and now?”.  

From the records of income and ‘expenditure on animals’ from 2018 to 2022 while income was rising, the percentage of income that the NSW RSPCA was spending on animals fell from 9% in 2018 to 6% in 2022. Despite an ever-increasing profit each year, RSPCA is still closing shelters - Apr 2021 Port Macquarie Shelter: Apr 2023 - Tuggerah animal shelter 

Now in 2025, the BMCC have a proposal in place (p19 of https://www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/Final%202025-2029%20CAMP.pdf ) to not re-establish the animal shelter facilities (to have two emergency places only) and to make money from the Mort St animal centre by offering pound facilities to other councils.  We are in a World Heritage Area and need to protect our native wildlife and their habitat. We require a large animal shelter to keep domestic pets etc out of our national parks and to keep them safe while we find them new homes.

We will use your signatures to petition NSW Blue Mountain City Council to REINSTATE FULL SHELTER FACILITIES AT MORT ST ANIMAL CARE CENTRE AND to call this shelter the “Silvia Ford Animal Shelter”

We will use your signatures to petition NSW RSPCA to return all proceeds from the sale of the two BM Shops to fund the running of that shelter

If you care about our pets and native animals, please sign (and share!) this petition.