Westside Community Desexing
Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (09:48): Last week I was pleased to meet Ella, who was waiting in line to be desexed at Westside Community Desexing clinic. She is a rescue kitten and just one of a whopping 3500 cats and kittens that Westside have desexed since their opening 18 months ago. Across Australia each and every year many thousands of cats lose their lives due to an overbreeding crisis. Kittens are cute, but we certainly do not need any more of them in this state. One undesexed female cat and her offspring can produce up to 2000 kittens in just four years. But the main reason people do not desex their companion animals is not because they do not want to or do not understand the importance of it, it is because they cannot afford it. The cost-of-living crisis and decreasing access to affordable vet care is only worsening this problem. Westside is filling this gap, providing low-cost desexing and vouchers for eligible Victorians and working with a range of councils on programs to encourage Victorians to do the right thing and ensure their cats are not breeding. I want to thank Westside for having me visit and, most importantly, for providing such a vital program that I hope others in this place and the other place can support too.