Victorian Dog Rescue & Resource Group Inc. aims to decrease the unacceptably high number of dogs killed in pounds each year. Around 250,000 healthy dogs and cats are killed in Australian pounds and shelters annually. Nearly all these pets could be rehomed. All sorts of dogs find themselves on ‘death row’ – pedigrees, mixed breeds, old dogs, puppies. Most end up in pounds and shelters through no fault of their own – their misfortune in many cases is they have not the love and loyalty they’ve given their owners returned to them. We rescue as many dogs as possible and place them in foster care until we find them loving, permanent homes.

VicDRG also aims to encourage responsible pet ownership, and to educate those members of the public who believe that rescue dogs are in some way second-rate that this is positively not the case. Rather, we promote the myriad joys and benefits of adopting a rescue pet.

We operate as a No-Kill organisation, on the basis that only vicious animals or those with irreversible health problems with no quality of life are euthanased, in accordance with the No-Kill philosophy now prevalent in the United States.

We also, within the limitations of a volunteer-only group, act as a resource for people wanting to surrender their pets or needing advice on where to turn with specific problems with their animals.

For more information, please visit www.victoriandogrescue.org.au.

Victorian Dog Rescue:

• Rescues homeless pets on death row in Victorian pounds and places these dogs and cats in our network of foster carers until a permanent loving home is found

• Promotes responsible pet ownership and encourages the community as a whole to embrace a caring and responsible attitude towards animal welfare

• Provides advice to members of the public on the resources available in Victoria for pet rescue, rehoming and finding lost pets

• Issues a quarterly newsletter to advise on different aspects of pet ownership, pet rescue and current news and events in the community

• Works with local and country pounds and shelters to minimise the numbers of homeless pets killed

• Develops and encourages networks of communication for people involved in the rescue and rehoming of homeless pets

• Ensures that no pet is rehomed by us without being desexed, microchipped and vaccinated.

• We are the only Victorian rescue group concentrating on dogs on death-row in Victorian pounds, particularly in country areas.  

• We save the lives of homeless pets on a weekly basis. Since the establishment of our Drought Dogs Program in 2006, we have helped save more than 1000 dogs and 100 cats. See http://www.victoriandogrescue.org.au/ddp.html.   

• Prior to our Drought Dogs Program, only one in five dogs entering Mildura Pound were reclaimed by their owners and nearly all the rest were killed (around 80 per cent). Now the kill rate is approximately 19 per cent, and the room once used for the twice-weekly vet euthanasia visits is now a storage area.    

• We liaised with rangers at Mildura Pound to introduce a parvovirus vaccination, at our own cost, for dogs entering the pound. If the owners claimed the dog we still bore the cost. The Mildura Council saw the benefit of this and all dogs entering the pound are now vaccinated against parvo on arrival, with a corresponding lessening of this often deadly disease in the community as noted by one of the vets.  

• A local organisation, Sunraysia Animal Rehoming Group (SARG), has been formed in Mildura in response to our Drought Dogs Program. They now endeavour to rehome homeless pets locally, educate their community on responsible pet ownership and we work together to save as many animals as we can.  

• We were the first and remain (to our knowledge) the only Victorian shelter or rescue group to offer a 30-day refund on every pet, a lifetime ‘take back’ guarantee, and the services of a dog behaviouralist/trainer free to all new adopters for the first 30 days. This has proven an incredibly popular program, and means that our return rate is less than 0.05 per cent. 

• All work we do is carried out by volunteers and we are proud of the fact that every dollar donated to us goes towards the welfare of the dogs and cats in our program.