Northern Territory News
Written by Rebecca Hewett

A program to desex camp dogs in Arnhem Land has received a funding boost from a Sydney-based animal welfare group. Voiceless, founded by art gallery owner Brian Sherman, gave the Ramingining dog management program $10,000 to keep the project going for another year.

Program founder Anne Celan said nearly 140 dogs had been desexed since the program started last March.

Very sick dogs were put down by the vet, who visited three times over the year. "The program was introduced because we had an uncontrollable dog population," Ms Celan said. "There were hundreds of starving dogs in the community. It can be hard as Aboriginal people don't like you touching their dogs," she said. We didn't get much support from the white community either, with some notable exceptions".

Now Ms Celan said the Yolngu were happy with the progress of the dog management program.

"People trust the vet more and I think they see it's better to have four dogs around the house than 19 dogs, which some houses had," she said.

Mr Sherman said the dog management program was "an incredibly worthy recipient" of the funding. "The grant will be used to bring a vet into the community to assist severely sick and injured dogs," he said.

"(It will) alleviate some severe animal suffering."

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