Councillor Sam Rowland and Mr Kennedy revealed the incoming changes to the Post last week; among them the development of a volunteer program and a greater focus on community education and re-homing impounded dogs and cats.

“The rangers are aware there is that negative perception of us out there in what we do and I think education is a big part of it so people can have a better understanding of what we do and a little bit more information behind it,” Mr Kennedy explained.

“The rangers do a great job,” Cr Rowland added.

“They are working in a limited legislative environment so they do the best with what they have. Now we are just trying to take it that step further and that’s what Daniel is doing with these changes.”

One of the most exciting changes to the facility, the pair believe, is the introduction of the volunteers program.

In the new plan, two volunteers will attend the facility daily for two hours between 8am and 10am to provide interaction with the animals and exercise the dogs.

“The idea is to get them to provide that interaction and care that the rangers themselves don’t have the resources to do,” Mr Kennedy said.

“We have a duty of care to the animals [but] we can’t justify for us to sit out here and exercise the animals. It’s not a requirement but it is one of those initiatives we want to get out there and do. It’s about doing the best we can by the animals that are here.”

The re-homing program will rely heavily on the success of the volunteers program and will see a more streamlined process put in place for those wishing to purchase a pet from the facility.

Council will also begin advertising available animals on the Council website and will work more closely with existing rehoming programs in an effort to increase animal turn-around rates and reduce euthanasia statistics.

“Currently we mainly work with the RSPCA and Canberra Pooch Rescue but there are over 70 other organisations out there – not to say we will work with all of them but we will be looking into working with more,” Mr Kennedy said.

“We don’t have a big euthanasia rate at the moment but there are a few dogs that unfortunately fall through the cracks so we really want to work on re-homing.

There will always be a euthanasia rate, you can never get rid of it because there are dogs that can’t be re-homed if they are aggressive or extremely ill so there will always be that rate, we just want to get it down a little bit further.”

While the changes have been in the works for several months, they are still very much in their preliminary stages, Cr Rowland said.

“It was hard to do anything while we had an acting general manager. Warwick [Bennett] has now come on board and that’s what we need.

“We are now looking at identifying potential prevalent issues and looking around at what other Council’s do in terms of their animal companion facilities and what initiatives they have that isn’t prescribed in legislation.”

Currently the local facility can home around 20 animals at any one time. In the 2013/14 financial year, Goulburn Mulwaree Council Rangers attended 660 animal control requests.

Council will advertise for facility volunteers in the near future.