It is hard to believe that two people would be able to save 351 dogs and cats over the course of one year, but that is exactly what Geoff and Pam Johnson have achieved at Gwydir Park Refuge at Delungra.
Geoff said he never expected such as response to the ‘refugees’ when he and Pat started the refuge last year.
“When we started off we thought if we re-homed 50 or 60 animals a year we would be doing very well. To re-home more than 300 is a great result.
“We have already re-homed 24 animals this year and we are only a month into the year.”
Gwydir Park takes in animals that have been surrendered to them by owners for various reasons and also animals that have been dumped and have suffered great neglect.
“We get animals surrendered to us from all around the area, in recent times we have noticed an increase in people who have to move for work and can’t take their pets with them, there are also a lot of cruelty cases of animals being dumped in the bush, but we do everything we can for every animal we get here,” Pat said.
Adopting an animal from Gwydir Park Refuge is free, and each animal comes with a micro chipping and de-sexing voucher from Gowrie Vet Clinic, and Pat and Geoff said the support from the vet clinic is essential to their work.
“Without the support we receive from the Gowrie Vet Clinic, there is no way we would be able to do what we do, they have been outstanding offering us reduced price vet services when the animals are sick and also giving us the de-sexing and micro chipping vouchers for the animals we re-home.”
Geoff and Pat decided to open up Gwydir Park Refuge about 18 months ago, owing to a lifelong passion for animals and their noticing of a need for a refuge for animals in the area.
“We bred and raced greyhounds for many years, and both of us have always loved animals,” Pat said.
“We already had the kennels in place and wanted to do something to fill a need in town for displaced animals, so we used the kennels we already had and built a cattery, the rest is history.”
© 2009 Inverell Times
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