Last week, Darebin City Council's Animal Management Branch emailed rescue groups to advise them of 17 cats and kittens who had been put on kill lists at the Lost Dogs Home for the week commencing 29/2. To date, only 2 of the cats have secured rescue. The volunteer-run rescue groups who save Darebin animals week in, week out, have indicated that they cannot cope with the volume of animals needing rescue from the Lost Dogs Home's kill lists. Save Darebin Pets has requested council take urgent action to help secure foster carers for the 15 remaining cats, warning that their lives are in danger, however, council officers have refused to do anything.

Council's pound contract is held by the Lost Dogs Home, a high-kill organisation that rehomed only 88 of the 950 cats impounded by Darebin Council in 2014-15. That year, 516 cats from Darebin were saved by rescue groups - MORE THAN FIVE TIMES THE NUMBER OF DAREBIN CATS REHOMED BY THE LOST DOGS HOME. Having to pull so many animals from the Lost Home's kill lists every week is putting an enormous strain on the handful of volunteers who are the cats' only hope of getting out of the pound alive. The current arrangement is unsustainable. And it is placing animals' lives in danger, including the cats shown in the photo below. Darebin City Council - who impounded them - has no "Plan B" for them. If these cats are not taken in by rescue groups, they will be killed at the Lost Dogs Home before the end of the week.

The Darebin community finds the killing of healthy and treatable cats and dogs to be abhorrent. We believe that lost, homeless and displaced animals deserve care and protection - not a lethal injection. We demand an animal management system that is consistent with these values.

We call on Darebin City Council to take the following actions, to ensure that animals impounded by council leave the pound alive:

1. Take urgent steps to secure foster carers for these cats to ensure they leave the Lost Dogs Home alive;

2. In consultation with rescue groups working to save Darebin animals, develop strategies to promote the adoption of Darebin animals by local residents;

3. Work to establish a council-run foster care network for impounded dogs and cats.