Animal shelter Paws and Claws has welcomed its new president Michael Kerr, who has vowed to put gossip surrounding the organisation in the past and rebuild the shelter's level of service. 

Mr Kerr, who is also president of the Douglas Theatre Arts Group and treasurer of the Low Isles Preservation Society, said Paws and Claws needs to focus on restoring its previous level of service to customers in addition to finding a suitable block of vacant land to build a new centre. 

The embattled centre, which is facing financial difficulties, was gifted a block of land in the Craiglie Business Estate but is unable to use it due to noise concerns. 

Rumours and gossip have also run rampant for more than a year about the centre’s use of donated funds. 

Mr Kerr, who was accepted as President of the centre’s committee in November, said his intention was now to ‘look forward’ to get the centre up and running properly again. 

Neglected conditions at the centre have impacted revenue from customers wanting to use it as a boarding house for pets. 

“I think one of the issues that previous committees had is that they were so concerned with raising funds for a new centre, operation and management of the current centre has fallen by the wayside,” Mr Kerr said. 

“The other issue is these rumours that have been circulating back and forth for some time, they aren’t helping us move forward or help the animals.”

Mr Kerr’s first priority is to bring Paws and Claws back ‘up to standard’ to improve boarding income, and to this end the centre recently held a working bee to clean and repaint its interior in addition to flea-bathing all its dogs. 

Another initiative is the hiring of a full-time manager to look after the centre. 

“You have to understand the dogs are more than happy with the centre, they’re not really concerned with what colour the walls are,” Mr Kerr said. 

“It’s about how humans perceive the place, so we’re trying to fix it up.”

Once the centre restoration is accomplished, Paws and Claws will re-focus on finding a good block of land to build a new centre on. 

The committee has been promised a $250,000 from the Cairns Animal Welfare Trust, in addition to $100,000 from other assorted donors but this money is dependent on Paws and Claws owning a new block of land. 

Douglas Shire Council has offered to lease the committee a block in Mossman, but this would preclude the centre from receiving the donation funds, placing them in a Catch-22. 

“What we’re really hoping is that there is a cane farmer out there that’s got an unused corner of a paddock they’d be willing to sell us,” Mr Kerr said. 

“The centre provides a vital service - we don’t just put up pet boarders when the owners go on holiday, we take in lost or feral dogs and cats that would otherwise be roaming the area killing native animals. We also have a no-kill policy - if we were not here, the animals would go to the council pound which will have to put them down if nobody comes forward to claim them fast enough.”