The City of Whittlesea and Hume City Council in partnership with Lort Smith Animal Hospital launched ‘Little paws of the North’, an initiative that supports the community in responsible pet ownership.

Alternating between Hume City Council and City of Whittlesea, residents with a concession card booked their pets into Lort Smith Animal Hospital Vet Clinic located at 25-35 Berwick Road, Campbellfield to have their pets desexed, microchipped and vaccinated by expert vets at heavily discounted prices.

The project aimed to not only reduce the risk of potentially serious hormone-related conditions and unwanted pregnancies, but it will also offer pet owners education sessions that provide tips to help ensure the entire family, including our furry companions, are safe and happy in their forever homes.

The program provided affordable desexing to 300 cats owned by over 250 people.

The desexing packages were available to residents of the City of Whittlesea and Hume City Council at $50 per cat. The package included:

• a routine health check;
• routine desexing with post-operative pain relief;
• F3 vaccinations protecting cats from flu and parvovirus; and
• microchip implantation and database registration which will help reunite missing pets with their owners quickly and easily.

Lort Smith provided each owner with a small information kit to take home including a certificate of proof for desexing their pet, information about microchipping, and post-operative care information.
To be eligible:

• the resident or nominated owner of the pet had to be 16 years of age or older;
• a confirmed resident of the partnered municipality (City of Whittlesea or Hume City Council) ;
• a valid government-issued concessional card; and
• evidence of experiencing financial hardship (preferable but not essential).

All cats had to be three months or over and be a minimum weight of 1kg.

The Little Paws of the North Program is now closed.