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Canberra Today 15°/19° | Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

RSPCA hunkering down in Weston trying to stem the financial losses

george and orwell

RSPCA ACT has released its 2013/14 results before tomorrow’s Annual General Meeting.

The organisation has had a poor financial year with a deficit of $551,484 and a reduction of net assets from $1.1m to $401,530.

This follows a year of significant leadership changes and a reduction in fundraising revenue partially attributed to an economic downturn in the Canberra community.

“In light of the challenging financial situation, we had to make some significant changes at the end of 2013/14. It was absolutely necessary to reengineer the processes and organisational structure to actually make it better for animal welfare despite reducing our staff numbers. Now we have standardised operations across the various animal areas, have a much more flexible workforce and have reduced the number of times that animals have to be handled or moved before a vet check which reduces the spread of disease,” said RSPCA ACT CEO Tammy Ven Dange.

“We have cut costs as far as we can without significantly reducing the current services we provide or impacting the welfare of the animals in the shelter. Now, we need to generate more income. We have some really exciting plans for 2015, and I truly hope that the greater Canberra community will support us now as we try to move the organisation back into financial health.”

In the meantime the planned move to a new facility is going to have to wait.

“We can spend only limited energy and resources on a new facility until we can financially stabilise the current one in Weston. We have been working with the ACT government, and will continue those discussions as soon as we can. For the moment, the entire team is focussed on ensuring that we are still here next year to look after the animals in our community.”

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