The City of Ballarat, along with neighbouring councils, is advocating to state and federal governments for funding to construct a much-needed regional animal shelter ahead of next year's election campaigns.
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Ballarat's current animal shelter is outdated and located in a old abattoir and does not fit the needs of a growing city with a growing animal population.
Council has committed $200,000 for scoping and design works to get the project shovel-ready and attract government funding, with a site already identified in the Mitchell Park industrial estate.
Council said a new facility is necessary to relieve overcrowding and poor conditions at the existing shelter and would also service the needs of six neighbouring shires in Hepburn, Golden Plains, Pyrenees, Ararat, Central Goldfields and Hindmarsh.
Council currently has tender processes open to develop a business case for a regional animal shelter and an architectural design.
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Ballarat mayor Daniel Moloney said while most pets were well looked after at home, some unfortunately made their way to the shelter.
"That's because of a whole range of reasons, sometimes they're not able to be looked after by the owners, other times it might be a domestic violence situation where an animal needs to be temporarily housed by the shelter and, unfortunately, other times it's just mistreatment of animals which is when it's really particularly sad," he said.
"Our staff do a great job of caring for animals that can't fend for themselves. It's pretty incredible work they do there and very important stuff. Unfortunately, the facilities have been well and truly outgrown, partly in the fact that they're already pretty tiny and inappropriate.
"We need to make sure that now there's some better facilities in place with a growing municipality, also not just for us but for several neighbouring councils as well so that all use our facilities."
Cr Moloney said a regional facility in Ballarat would go a long way to assisting smaller rural councils in their animal management.
"Ballarat is a generally well-resourced area but there are many other councils around us that have a fraction of our budget because their populations are smaller so it's hard to replicate every single service in every council," he said.
"Where you can get economies of scale and, especially, the smaller shires can make use of our facilities out of the larger councils, that's important.
"Ballarat's an important city in its own right, but it's also an important part of the region and we serve more than just the Ballarat population, it's up to an 80 to 100 kilometre radius around us."
Cr Moloney said while animal management was a matter for councils, government funding was needed with a large-scale infrastructure project such as this.
"The problem we've had in the past with this one is that there's no dedicated government budget or program for animal shelters across the state and this is something that many councils struggle with," he said.
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"The problem is that most councils are often using really outdated facilities and just getting by and it's because as a council, we have limited budgets.
"The projects were initially scoped at up to $15 million, but we are in the process of rescoping a scalable project, so maybe it could start significantly smaller than that and build up over time."
Animal Justice Party Member for Western Victoria Andy Meddick said the region has needed a purpose-built animal shelter for some time.
"I actually put it in as a budget bid in the last budget round and, unfortunately, we didn't get the funding. I know the city has been working on an updated bid with new information, slightly tweaked designs, I believe, so I'm hoping that this time, we can actually get it across the line," he said.
"They provide really what is an essential service to their communities and the surrounding areas. It's important and I feel that it's really important that the state government recognises the function and the service that they provide and steps in and funds them accordingly."
Mr Meddick said the shelter could work in a hub-and-spoke model with the Ballarat shelter supplemented by smaller local shelters.
"You're never going to lose the need for some sort of smaller facility in different places so long as they're not put beyond capacity and become a hub. It very much could be like a hub-and-spoke model where you have these larger centres in the regional towns, but you should have the ability for short-term accommodation and short-term facility in the more outlying areas that are linked in."
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