Animals that come through our doors may have been relinquished due to family hardship or change in circumstances, abandoned, or critically injured and brought to us by concerned members of the public. We provide a range of programs that serve the community including:

Fostering

The fostering program enables cats, dogs, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds and reptiles to be fostered out. These animals may then return to Lort Smith for adoption, or may remain with their foster homes.

Fostering in prisons

In this successful partnership program with the Judy Lazarus Transition Centre carefully selected dogs are placed with equally carefully chosen prisoners who are serving the last six to nine months of their sentence. The dogs are placed in the centre to help with prisoners’ transition back into society. The animals are fostered from the Hospital until they are ready for adoption. The partnership is extremely beneficial for both parties, building self esteem among prisoners and providing foster animals with a good environment with lots of human contact, while freeing up space within our shelter facilities to help even more animals.

Working Dogs

The Working Dogs program was developed for excitable and energetic dogs who cannot be re-homed but can lead active, happy lives as ‘scenting dogs’. The program was developed with renowned dog trainer Steve Austin.

Former Lort Smith shelter dogs have gone on to do important work, including sniffing out cane toads that pose a threat to wildlife, finding turtle eggs on the Murray River to protect them from preying foxes, and Jack who has been trained for explosives detection in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Australian army.

Animal Welfare Assistance

The Lort Smith Emergency Welfare Assistance program provides support for people in crisis, who need emergency temporary boarding for their pets.