NEWS that Wodonga Council is looking at its options to outsource management of the city’s pound should come as no great surprise.
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The council first let it be know last year it would review the pound’s management, a suggestion the council staff quickly downplayed — they said there were no immediate plans to do so.
The only conclusion that could be drawn from that surely was that the step was not so much a matter of if, but when it would happen.
No one can complain about the council look for way to improve the efficiency of its operations — much has been reported in this newspaper of the council’s debt and need to save where possible.
But running the pound, with the help of Wodonga Dog Rescue, however, is already a relatively cheap exercise.
The council says outsourcing is not so much about cutting costs as it about ensuring a model that relies on volunteers to re-home animals is sustainable.
So why then is the council so seemingly reluctant to commit to a no-kill policy or shelter in its expressions of tender process?
The council has tooted its own horn often on its exceptionally high rate of re-housing animals ever since Wodonga Dog Rescue came on board — at least 1500 since 2011.
It would be a real shame to risk losing this great record for the sake of a few dollars.