By Oliver Winn
A round of Pet Rehoming Grants has covered crucial medical costs for Forever Friends Animal Rescue (FFAR) in Gladysdale, ensuring the shelter can keep saving the lives of vulnerable animals for the year.
FFAR founder Saskia Adams said the funding, totalling at $75,000, has made a huge impact on helping the animal shelter operate.
“It’s the difference between survival and not surviving as a rescue organization,” Ms Adams said.
“The biggest cost for any rescue group, any shelter, is the cost of medical care for the thousand plus animals that come in at any given time of the year for us.”
The grant comes from the State Government’s latest round of Individual Pet Rehoming Grants helps to reduce the costs for animal shelters and community foster care networks, so that they can continue caring for the state’s furry friends.
At a total of $1.27 million covering sixty organisations across Victoria, these grants are apart of the Animal Welfare Fund (AWF) Grants Program.
Since 2014, the AWF Grants Program has awarded more than $13 million in funding to not-for-profit animal shelters, foster care organisations and community vet clinics to directly improve companion animal welfare in Victoria.
Ms Adams said the average cost per animal for her shelter was roughly $400 each.
“So if we’re saving over 1,000 lives a year, we’re very quickly heading to half a million dollars’ worth of medical costs [per year],” she said.
Ms Adams founded Forever Friends Animal Shelter 14 years ago after witnessing the way how animals were being treated at pounds and shelters across the state.
As an editor at Penguin Books at the time, Ms Adams said she had her career “mapped out for [her]”.
But she knew something had to be done, and so she started Forever Friends Animal Rescue.
“I was just so horrified at what we were doing as a society, that I decided to give up my paid work in publishing and start the charity full time.”
“It is incredibly exhausting and difficult work, but at the same time, it’s the best job in the world and it’s the worst job in the world, all on the same day,” Ms Adams said.
When FFAR was established, Ms Adams and her fostercare network only housed around five animals at a time, but as time went on and demand grew, so did the number of animals Ms Adams had.
“That was when we didn’t have a shelter, we were just using a foster care network. And I laugh when I now think about that, because we’ve got 500 or 600 animals in care on any given day, which is quite a few more than five.”
Forever Friends Animal Rescue are always looking for more volunteers to help the organisation run.
Those interested in signing up are encouraged to visit their website: foreverfriends.org.au
Ms Adams’ benevolence hasn’t gone unrecognised – in 2021, she was the winner of the Community Hero Award in the 2021 Community Achievement Awards.
Mrs Adams was honoured for her significant contributions to FFAR’s efforts rescuing and rehabilitating over 10,000 animals since its inception in 2011, despite being a volunteer organisation.
To date, the AWF Grants Program has supported the rehoming of more than 6,000 dogs and 12,000 cats.
Minister for Agriculture Ros Spence said the animal shelters across the state need adequate support to provide the essential services it does for the community.
“Our rehoming and rescue organisations do an incredible job caring for vulnerable animals, we’re making sure they have the support they need to continue this great work,” he said.
