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The Crisis
The Reality in Remote Communities
This crisis isn’t about neglect - it’s about lack of access. Together, we can change that.
WHAT ANIMALS EXPERIENCE
Across remote communities, over 10,000 puppies die every year – not gently, but through long, painful, and entirely preventable deaths. They are abandoned by their mothers who cannot cope, or they waste away from parasites, disease, and hunger. Adult dogs are not spared either, forced into the same cycle of suffering while trying to survive and raise litter after litter.
Every day, animals are:
- Dying from preventable diseases such as parvovirus, ehrlichiosis, leptospirosis, coccidiosis, and scabies
- Killed by parasites including hookworm, heartworm, paralysis ticks, and coccidia
- Suffering unseen and untreated injuries, including broken bones, chronic wounds, pyometra, infected bites, and crippling skin conditions
- Living as strays, left exposed and often starving to death
- Caught in the cycle of uncontrolled breeding, leading to extreme puppy mortality and forcing mothers to fight for their own survival while their litters die around them
THE IMPACT OF THIS CRISIS
The animal welfare crisis results in:
- Community safety risks – uncontrolled dog populations lead to frequent dog bites, attacks, and traffic accidents involving roaming animals
- Human health threats – parasites and zoonotic diseases (including ehrlichiosis) spread through households, often affecting children first, causing chronic and sometimes fatal illnesses
- Biosecurity dangers – ehrlichiosis (E. canis) is spreading rapidly through northern Australia, and research shows future zoonotic outbreaks (such as rabies) would be almost impossible to contain with uncontrolled dog populations
- Mental health toll – residents face the daily trauma of animals suffering without the tools to intervene, contributing to grief, helplessness, and community fatigue
- Strain on health services – preventable dog-related injuries, infections, and parasite-borne diseases lead to avoidable hospitalisations and pressure on already stretched clinics
- Economic burden on councils and governments – millions spent on reactive, short-term ‘Band-Aid’ measures, while underlying problems worsen
- Environmental harm – roaming dogs hunt and kill native wildlife, disturb fragile ecosystems, and spread parasites into the environment
- Reputational damage – tourists and visitors misinterpret the crisis as ‘neglect’, unfairly blaming residents, harming both community pride and tourism appeal
- Education disruption – children missing school due to dog-related injuries, illness, or fear of roaming dogs on the way to class.
- Cultural stress – dogs play important social and cultural roles in Indigenous communities. Their suffering creates strain on traditions and family systems that value animals as companions and protectors. The forced management via Council systems creates conflict between community members.
WHAT’S CAUSING THIS CRISIS
- Limited access to affordable veterinary care – many families want to help their dogs but are unable to due to extreme financial pressures and lack of local options
- High cost and poor availability of supplies – food, parasite prevention, and treatments are either unavailable or prohibitively expensive due to transport and logistics
- Household priorities focused on essentials - with limited employment options in remote communities, priority expenses like food and housing leave little disposable income to support pets
- No resident veterinarians – the communities we support have no permanent vet, meaning animals can suffer or die before ad-hoc council-funded vet clinics occur
- Isolation during the wet season – communities are cut off via road for months at a time, leaving animals without any chance of timely treatment
- Limited access to culturally relevant education and support – most community members are not aware of the importance of desexing, parasite prevention, and containing dogs to reduce illness and injury
- Animal management underfunded – councils are often forced to focus on housing, waste, and infrastructure, leaving little capacity for sustained animal programs
- Different cultural perspectives on ownership – dogs are often shared or seen as part of the community, not a single person’s responsibility, which conflicts with Western belief systems
- Widespread parasite infestations – many residents don’t know the risks or treatments available, so infestations spread rapidly between dogs and into households
- No nationally consistent framework for remote animal welfare – leaving communities and councils to patch together underfunded, reactive responses
- Transient or informal dog populations – roaming and communal dogs are harder to desex, vaccinate, and monitor, perpetuating cycles of breeding and disease.
- Lack of integration with human health programs – animal and human health are deeply linked, but are often treated as separate issues by policy and funding bodies
- Overwhelmed rescue and rehoming capacity – there are far more animals needing care than spaces available with charities and shelters
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
You wake up. Another day without work. There are no jobs here, and you were never taught how to use a computer, so online work isn’t an option. It’s been nearly two weeks since your last Centrelink payment, and the cupboards are looking bare.
Your child is off school again with a headache and fatigue. You bundle them into the car and head down to the only shop in town, searching for something affordable but filling. You’ve got just $30 left. It won’t stretch far when a box of cereal costs $8, a small bag of dog food is $30, and a bottle of milk is $7.
You head home, your child dozing in the passenger seat, and pull into the yard. Then you feel it – a bump under the wheels, followed by a sharp yelp. You slam on the brakes.
Heart racing, you jump out of the car. Your dog is lying on the ground behind the car, crying out in pain, one leg bent at an angle no leg should bend. Blood trickles from where the skin has torn. She tries to drag herself up but collapses again, shaking and whimpering.
Your child starts sobbing. You fall to your knees beside your dog, but what can you do?
You call your cousin who works on the Animal Management Team. He’s at the pound today, and he’s not supposed to help with pet injuries, but he promises to come after work. When he arrives, he shakes his head. The bone looks broken, maybe shattered. The only chance is a vet.
But there’s no vet in your community. The closest one is a seven-hour drive away, and it’s the wet season so the roads are cut off. Flying her out might be possible, but it costs thousands of dollars – money you simply don’t have.
You try calling a telehealth vet, desperate for advice, but they explain it’s against the law to prescribe pain relief or antibiotics without any way of seeing the animal in person.
So you sit with your dog as she cries, her body trembling, her leg twisted and useless. Your child clings to you, begging you to fix her. But you can’t.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
This all-too-real story reminds us that what may look like neglect from the outside is, in fact, something very different.
Families in remote communities deeply value their animals, but when faced with extreme financial pressures, isolation during the wet season, and no access to veterinary services, their options are painfully limited. What might be misinterpreted as indifference is often just people doing their best with what little they have, making impossible choices between feeding their children, paying bills, or trying to save a much-loved dog.
WHAT’S NOT CAUSING THIS CRISIS?
It’s important to be clear:
- This is not caused by residents ‘not caring’ for their animals.
- This is not a simple issue of ‘irresponsible ownership.’
- This is not something Animal Management Officers can fix on their own. Their role is compliance, not long term welfare or veterinary care.
- This is not a problem that short term desexing drives or fly in vet visits can solve. Without follow up, the cycle quickly repeats.
- This is not an issue that can be solved by charities alone. Sustainable change requires coordinated, long term frameworks.
- This is not the fault of any single community or council.
The Crisis in Pictures
A warning – the section below contains photographs of real injuries and animal suffering, hidden by default so you can choose whether to view them.
These images may be upsetting. They are shown only to help you understand the suffering that so many dogs endure, and why urgent action is needed. Click the + to view the images.
Mabel - A serious leg injury
Kirra - An advanced abscess
Leggy - A fractured leg
Bubba - Run over by a car
Louie - Extreme malnourishment
Melorie - A dog fight injury
Cleo - A deep leg wound
Chillie - Dog fight wounds
Peanut, Nova & Jacko - Extreme malnourishment
Sammy - A broken leg
Litter of five - Extreme malnourishment
HOW TO SOLVE THIS CRISIS
Lasting solutions must be:
- Culturally appropriate - respecting and working with local values and traditions
- Community driven - empowering residents to lead and sustain change
- Scalable and supported by infrastructure - not one off, 'Band Aid' projects
- Integrated - recognising the links between animal health, human health, education, and the environment
Remote Animal Assistance is uniquely positioned to help lead this transformation. Through strong community partnerships, lived field experience, and a phased, evidence-informed strategy, we are working towards a future where dogs are healthy, communities are safer, and the cycle of suffering is finally broken.
SUPPORT US
Right now, our greatest need is steady financial support to keep driving long term solutions.
Every step forward takes countless unseen efforts: building trust with communities, strengthening partnerships, advocating for systemic change, and securing larger funding for the future. By helping us cover these everyday costs, you make it possible for us to respond to urgent needs while laying the foundation for a future where this crisis no longer exists.
Your support today sustains the work that creates lasting change, ensuring healthier dogs, safer communities, and an end to the cycle of preventable suffering.