Pet carers await your call
RSPCA animal attendant Alex Byrne with Mayfair, a stray who turned up with kittens. The kittens have all been homed, but not Mayfair. Renee Pilcher
by Arthur Gorrie
IT'S raining cats and dogs at the Gympie RSPCA and staff would like to let the owners of stray animals know some of those missing pets may very likely be at their Laurenceson Road shelter.
Gympie animal attendant Alex Byrne said cats were more likely to be abandoned and not reclaimed or re-homed than dogs.
But anyone wanting their animals back could help the shelter and themselves by ensuring their pets were micro-chipped, she said.
Gympie's animal shelter, like many others in Queensland, is experiencing a busy period, but it seems the post-Christmas stray-pet problem has begun to slow.
"It's not as bad as it was," a spokesperson said yesterday.
"It's always busy over the holidays and especially after New Year's Eve, when a lot of animals run off in fright in response to fireworks."
Ms Byrne had two simple pieces of advice pet owners, for both before and after finding their animal companions missing.
The "before" part involves microchipping.
"A phone number on their collar is a very good first step, but they can lose their collars," she said.
"They can't lose their microchips, because it's in their backs.
"We just scan it and find their owners."
The "after" part involves calling the RSPCA animal shelter.
In Gympie's case, the number is 5482 9407.
"If people lose a dog or a cat, the easiest thing they can do is just call us," Ms Byrne said.
"For some reason, a lot of people just don't think of calling us.
"They put flyers up, but they don't make a phone call that could solve their problems."