The RSPCA South Australia Has Exceeded Its Capacity For The First Time In History

The RSPCA South Australia’s Lonsdale shelter had been forced to close the gate for people wanting to surrender their animals. 

The charity has exceeded its capacity for the first time since its opening in 1979, currently accommodating 542 cats and kittens, and 128 dogs.

RSPCA SA said the Lonsdale charity was “well above the shelter’s capacity-to-care model”.

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RSPCA SA CEO Marcus Gehrig described the situation as a perfect storm that had caused enormous numbers of animals to arrive at the shelter in the past 12 months.

“We currently have 1413 animals in care across the state – that is 357 (34%) more than we had at this time last year, and more than half of them are at our Lonsdale shelter,” Mr Gehrig said.

“We are an underfunded charity – this is a crisis where we have to act now because we’re simply out of room,” she said.

Mr Gehrig said they had rehomed 68 animals last week. However, the shelter encountered an additional 122 animals coming in.

RSPCA South Australia said a combined factor contributed to this crisis, and one of the factors was related to the rental crisis.

People surrendered 178 animals to RSPCA in the past 12 months due to the inability to secure a pet-friendly rental home. 

“I urge our community to help us through this crisis by giving an animal a home and using whatever resources are available to them to find homes for animals they can no longer care for.”

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