Congratulations Central Coast Animal Care Facility’s Freedom Busters
Freedom Busters is an initiative implemented by Central Coast Animal Care Facility to help those families who are struggling to reclaim their pet. Freedom Busters is made of many facets and can involve monetary assistance, training, repairs, veterinary work, whatever is needed to reunite the animal with their family.
The judges were impressed with many aspects of this program. Their return-to-owner rate at the moment is between 90%-95%, but they’re aiming to get to 100%. Their Freedom Busters Program is very important, because most dogs that are coming to pounds and about 70% coming to shelters, are actually owned dogs that become lost. The Freedom Busters program helps families who are struggling to reclaim their pet – people who simply can’t afford to pay the hundreds of dollars of fees associated with impoundment, and registration. Without help, these people have no choice but to leave the animal for it to be rehomed or euthanased. By reducing the number of animals that are left unclaimed in the pound or surrendered because the government mandated pound charges are unaffordable, this reduces euthanasia of healthy and treatable animals. The ultimate goal is to reunite families with their pets, and all animals leaving the facility are registered with the local government, microchipped, vaccinated, given flea and health treatment and in most cases, they’re also desexed. They also leave with a collar and an engraved tag. And for many of the people, their animals help them put one foot after another, especially when they’re really in challenging situations. It’s very sad for people to have to leave their animal in the pound, and it leads to some animals being euthanased where they were living well in a home; it also adds to government costs for managing animals.
