THE state’s RSPCA boss says the animal welfare organisation will have to be more definite on which services it provides as it battles with a reduced budget.
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The RSPCA’s inspectorate service has dropped from eight officers to five, and chief executive Peter West said resources were stretched.
Mr West said the RSPCA was pushing back services such as animal management and pest control to the government and councils, and would focus on animal cruelty.
‘‘Unless I can get some control over it, there won’t be an RSPCA,’’ Mr West said.
A funding agreement of $400,000 has been signed with the government, and an arrangement with the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment to share inspection services was weeks away from being finalised.
Mr West said that if the RSPCA continued to take on the level of investigations it had previously, other cases would miss out.
‘‘What we’re trying to get to is a happy medium where we can still continue to investigate the cases of animal cruelty in the smaller numbers of animals, and the department will handle the more intensive farming and primary industry side of things where there are larger numbers of animals,’’ he said.
Mr West said up to four jobs a week had been pushed to DPIPWE, and meetings were continuing on how the RSPCA would co-ordinate work with the department.
Primary Industries Minister Jeremy Rockliff told Parliament in June that the department would be resourced to investigate complaints and staff were well trained.
Greens animal welfare spokeswoman Cassy O’Connor said the reduced budget would be to the detriment of both domestic and farm animals in Tasmania.
A spokesman for DPIPWE said the department had extensive experience working in the animal welfare area, with departmental staff often leading on the majority of large animal welfare investigations.
