About 20 years ago- before the time when the ranger began running the pound kennel the old pound kennel was near the Japanese Garden and we had an inspector running it.

I begged the inspector to allow me to help him re-home dogs instead of destroying them and I also spent my weekends scrubbing the runs with parvocide to prevent dogs from getting the disease- I believe some of them got the disease in the kennel so obviously had to be destroyed.

I for one did complain about lots of things that were going on.

Because of the sad situation Dr Robert Watt, Blanche Douglas (Animal Lib), Fran a professional dog handler from New Zealand and myself, Eileen Metherell (vet nurse and dog and cat groomer) got together and offered to set up The Lost Dog's Home and set up a shelter here in Cowra- they would have been able to handle the work load efficiently.

We did our best to convince the Council to accept the proposal but they chose a different option; one that was - in my opinion - doomed to fail and opened up another pound kennel with a one man outfit running it.

I quote from your article "It should be remembered that Cowra Pound, and all other pounds, only exist because of the failure of members of society to adequately supervise and maintain control over animals under their care".

Yes, it is for this exact reason that we wanted a shelter in the first place knowing that it would be too much of a workload for one person, especially when the one has so many other duties.

I would like to ask some questions about the use of the pound kennel which I understood to be for stray animals who stayed in them for about two weeks giving the owners a chance to claim them.

Why was the ranger's dog in the pound kennel in the first place?

Cr West said that "The Council Ranger has successfully carried-out a range of duties for a long period of time" - why didn't the ranger carry out a duty of care for his own dog? Or doesn't the ranger have a secure fence around his own property?

How can he board his own dog in a kennel next to a 'dangerous dog' and what about him exposing his dog to all the diseases in the kennel ( we know that lots of unwanted dogs aren't de-sexed or micro chipped so why would they be vaccinated?).

If the council really cared for these unwanted dogs why and how could they keep this thin dog in a pound kennel for three months? Why wasn't this poor dog put to sleep after 2 weeks? Why are they doing a favour for an irresponsible owner when this is the very person the council is complaining about?

This is a pound kennel not a shelter. How can the RSPCA say that "animals were, in their opinion, appropriately-housed" if this 'dangerous dog' was able to get into the ranger's dog's kennel and kill the ranger's poor dog?

Should the RSPCA not have also assessed the kennel to see how it was managed?

After the ranger got the position of running the pound I gave up on the pound and took it upon myself to qualify as a dog behavioural trainer so that I could do my very best to help educate people on how to look after and understand their dogs.

What I have found is that there are more people who care than don't.

The solution still remains the same for the majority of people in Cowra who sincerely care for the welfare of animals, this is to prevent the problems we are having through education and appropriate rehoming rather than trying to fix problems after the event.

We, the community, need a shelter here. We need to fight tooth and nail and as far as I am concerned The Lost Dog's Home is still our best option.

Cr West said "we are also assessing our procedures, practices, and facilities in regards to this service."

Whilst doing this please Cr West will you consider that, in my opinion, the council's first mistake was to open another pound kennel and the second was for one man to try to run the shelter on his own.

Please get on board and make it possible for us to have our own shelter here in Cowra so that all of us (animals and people) can win.

Eileen Metherell

Cowra