Welcome, divine viewers, to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Today, we’re going to the Gold Coast, a city in the state of Queensland, Australia to visit the non-profit Animal Welfare League of Queensland, a caring shelter for dogs and cats. Let us begin by speaking with the League’s Strategic Development Officer Ms. Joy Verrinder about the group’s history and activities.

The Animal Welfare League was founded in 1959 by a group of dedicated citizens. They started as a very small group of people, rattling cans on street corners with little dogs and raising awareness amongst the public. And from there, the Animal Welfare League has grown into an organization that now employs over 120 people and has about 500 volunteers, and takes in 10,000 stray and abandoned cats and dogs a year plus a number of other animals if needed like horses and sheep and goats and so on.

The League strongly believes that in working with the community to end the practice of euthanasia in pounds and shelters.

A number of years ago, we actually put a huge survey in the paper. And we actually informed people of the number of animals that were being killed on the Gold Coast alone, and we asked them did they think that was acceptable. And then we put up a whole heap of solutions that we thought would be helpful to prevent the number of animals being born that don’t end up with a home to go to. And we found that obviously 99.9% all said that it was totally unacceptable, and they would be totally supportive of bringing in de-sexing and micro-chipping prior to sale or transfer.

To minimize the birth of kittens and puppies that would end up homeless, the League has been reaching out to local governments in Queensland and working with them on solutions. We’ve been working very strongly with local governments and state governments; it takes a long time to work through these processes, but gradually people are becoming more aware that it is a problem. And we’ve been very excited in Queensland: the state governments are now funding de-sexing projects in four councils this year and next, and that’s helping.

The Animal Welfare League of Queensland provides spaying and neutering, along with other services at its clinic, and takes into consideration the caregiver’s ability to pay in charging for procedures.

We’re working on a model for the whole city, and it includes having a community vet clinic, to offer low cost de-sexing and micro-chipping to the public, as well as any veterinary services that are needed.

When they can’t afford to pay for veterinary work our community veterinary clinic actually provides the opportunity for those animals to be treated, and we bring the cost down as low as we possibly can, until we get to the point where the person can afford it, so that they don’t have to give up their animal.

So that’s the purpose of a community vet clinic, to be there like a public hospital for all animals, but mainly cats and dogs. We have many vets now employed, seven vets on at any one time, and we do thousands of de-sexings every year, but we also treat all other sorts of other illnesses and diseases in our community vet clinic.

The League depends on foster carers to help fulfill its mission. Approximately 95% of the animals in the League’s foster care program are kittens and puppies. Generally a carer will take in the baby for about eight weeks and then return them to the League. Technology is helping to facilitate the running of carer programs across Australia.

People who have computer expertise like software programmers can do a huge amount. Just recently that’s starting to appear in Australia, where software programmers offer their services to develop foster care databases, for example, so that pounds and shelters can foster out little animals that are under eight weeks of age. They can then be cared for until they’re old enough to be de-sexed and re-homed, or sick animals can be fostered out, or animals that need a bit of training because they’re too timid and don’t survive well in a pound or shelter environment.

I think foster caring is one of the most important things that people in the community can do. Even people who don’t have a lot of space or don’t want to have a full-time commitment for an animal can put in, say one month caring for a mother and her litter of little kittens, until the kittens are old enough to be de-sexed and the mother can have the milk dry and then can be de-sexed, and that’s all contributing to reducing this oversupply of kittens that are being born every year that are causing the problem for the whole community, with not being able to find enough homes for them all.

When we return, we’ll take a look around the League’s community veterinary clinic. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back, wonderful viewers, to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants on Supreme Master Television. Our show features the Animal Welfare League of Queensland, a non-profit organization that takes in 10,000 stray and surrendered cats and dogs each year and works in harmony with the community to see that the needs of local animals are met and that they are respected. The League has created a community veterinary clinic where animal companions are treated at reduced rates. Ms. Joy Verrinder, the League’s Strategic Development Officer will now show us around the facility.

This is our community vet clinic, where members of the public come for their animals to be treated.

This is purely for animals that are already in their own homes, no matter where they’ve come from. So it’s anyone who needs assistance with treatment for their animals, whether it be regular immunization or their animal has a broken leg that needs to be fixed or needs to be de-sexed and micro-chipped. At the moment it’s tick season in Australia, which means that a lot of dogs that live in rural areas in particular, end up with ticks on them that cause paralysis, which is really serious, so we get a lot of admissions because of tick fever.

We believe that every city and shire should be providing this service for its animals because why should animals miss out when humans don’t? There’s a public hospital for humans, there should be a public hospital or a community vet clinic for animals.

Besides its community veterinary clinic, the League also runs a shelter veterinary clinic where stray and abandoned animals can be treated before they go to new homes.

You need a shelter veterinary clinic, which can be in the same place, but ours is in a different spot on the one side. And that’s for treating all the animals that come in that are abandoned.

This is Shelby and she’s been through our veterinary clinic and obviously needed some work done on her face, so she’s got some stitches and she’ll be healed very shortly, and she’s available for re-homing so she’s in her re-homing pen already. And we also have Bundy walking around in this same environment and Bundy’s had her de-sexing operation and she’s raring to go. She’s only six months old so she’s very excitable and really looking for a family to give her lots of exercise and attention. Hallo, darling.

It’s so good having the vet clinic on site, which means you can treat all dogs, for all sort of things, whether it be broken legs or injuries like this dog’s obviously had to the face or it might have been a little tumor or cancer or something that the vet’s been able to remove, so that then they’re ready for re-homing.

The League is active in reaching out to the community to raise awareness on a variety of issues related to our animal companions.

We have huge community education programs. We have four trained teachers on staff, who go out into schools, but we have community education as well. So we invite the community to come in and do tours. We invite school children to come in and do activities here at the refuge, which is quite unique, I think.

There’re a lot of animal welfare organizations that have school programs where you go out to the school, but we strongly believe in bringing in the children, including high school children, to the refuge, so that they get exposed to the numbers of animals that are being abandoned. And they get to wash them and walk them and learn about their veterinary care and learn about early age de-sexing, which is absolutely essential to prevent animal from breeding, when there’s too many out there.

Our catch-cry is, “Desex, identify, train, and keep safe,” and we teach that to everybody, and encourage the community to understand that if everybody did those four things, we wouldn’t have the situation of all these animals being abandoned, and ending up being killed in pounds and shelters. So, that’s the first thing we believe: Communities are responsible for their own animals, and they should be informed of what’s happening, where they are being abandoned and how many there are and how to solve it.

And we strongly believe that every animal values its life and deserves to live. And therefore it’s our responsibility to put every effort in to make it happen because they have feelings; they value their lives just as much as we do. And it is inappropriate and totally unethical to assume that we have the right to kill animals just because we haven’t managed our animals appropriately in our communities.

We thank Ms. Joy Verrinder of the Animal Welfare League of Queensland for speaking with us about her organization’s clinics and community outreach programs. Please join us tomorrow on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants for Part 2 of our show featuring the presentation of the Shining World Compassion Award to the League and more highlights of our visit to the League’s facility.

For more details on the Animal Welfare League of Queensland, please visit

Thank you for your company today on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May Heaven’s love always be in your life.

Everyone wants to live a healthy life. US naturopath, herbalist and author Dr. Steve Blake believes that we can empower people with knowledge to help them make informed dietary decisions and assist them towards that goal.

Sunflower seeds are very rich in vitamin E. They’re one of the cheapest of all the nuts and seeds, and really a healthful product. Hazelnuts and almonds also have a nice amount.

For other nutrition tips, please join us for Part 2 of “Wise Eating With Dr. Steve Blake,” Monday, May 3, on Healthy Living.

Everywhere in the world, we can observe and be touched by acts of kindness. People from all walks of life, faiths, and cultures extend themselves beyond the call of duty to help others unconditionally. Through their noble deeds, humanity as a whole is elevated.

To commend virtuous actions and encourage more people to be inspired by their examples, Supreme Master Ching Hai has lovingly created a series of awards, including the Shining World Leadership Award, Shining World Compassion Award, Shining World Hero and Heroine Awards, Shining World Honesty Award, Shining World Protection Award, Shining World Intelligence Award, and Shining World Inventor Award, to recognize some of the most exemplary, generous, caring, and courageous people who walk amongst us.

Welcome, joyful viewers, to today’s edition of the Shining World Compassion Award series celebrating the remarkable work of the Animal Welfare League of Queensland, located in sunny Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Since 1959 the League has been rescuing abandoned and stray cats and dogs and providing them with shelter and care until they find suitable homes. Another reason the League is a tremendous asset to the community is that it offers spaying and neutering services that help to prevent the birth of kittens and puppies who would end up homeless. The organization has many dedicated staff members, volunteers and community supporters.

One of the founders of the organizations back in 1959, Neil Anderson, is actually still on the committee, still coming to board meetings and shows an absolute commitment to the progress of the organization. And in addition to that, his daughter is the president now and has been giving her time, seven days a week, to the organization full-time, does not take a salary, just is totally committed to making this work. And that’s how you end up with an organization, that gradually pulls in people that all love animals and believe in the fact that they deserve a life and they deserve to be cared for. So we end up with lots of volunteers and lots of staff.

We have lots of volunteers who have done amazing things. For example, few years ago, Judy Clark, one of our volunteers, decided that the long-term animals, that means the dogs that maybe are waiting longer than two months for a home, sometimes it takes a while till they find their perfect match, she decided that they should get to go out of the shelter environment and have some fun, and so she initiated a beach walking program and that has continued for the last seven or so years, where a group of volunteers come three days a week, they put the animals in the van, in a trailer.

They take them down to the beach; they meet a group of volunteers. They all walk on the beach, they play in the water, and they have fun. Then they bring them back and they do a second trip and a third trip, and they repeat that every week for three days a week and the dogs get used to it. They get to know that they’re going to get a beach trip, to the extent that on a normal day when it’s not a beach walking day, the dogs tend to run past the trailer and jump in because they think it’s time to go to the beach.

Sue is one of the people who takes animals to the beach on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Oh, great!

I can imagine they’d love it.

They love it. They go swimming, they go running and playing with each other.

That’s wonderful! And do you notice a distinct lift in their spirits?

Yes! They’re very, very happy to be down there.

As they wait to be adopted by loving caregivers, the Animal Welfare League of Queensland tries its best to prepare each of the lovely, sweet-natured animals for life in their future forever home.

That’s the whole point. So that they’re then ready when they go into a home, they’re used to the outside world, they’re not getting timid and scared, and they’re meeting lots of people, which is so important for all animals. And the same with the cats, we’re introducing programs constantly, not only just for petting cats when they’re waiting for their new homes, but also some enrichment and rehabilitation programs, so that cats are not left feeling bored and isolated in their cages.

We have a large re-homing area where animals get to walk around. We put about 15 cats in the one area or 30 kittens at a time so they can jump up on high perches on walls or they can climb along surfaces up high. They can go into an outdoor enclosure where they can get access to the sun in winter and get some fresh air, and basically choose what they want to do in their own space. It might mean some of them want to hide for awhile, for example.

And then we need people to go in and help encourage them to come out and get used to people, because some cats are quite solitary creatures and quite nervous around people. So, there’s a lot of work to be done to encourage them to feel comfortable with people and enjoy their surroundings while they’re waiting to get their perfect home as well.

When we come back, we’ll learn about the adoption process at the Animal Welfare League of Queensland. Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television.

Welcome back to the Shining World Compassion Award series on Supreme Master Television. Since 1959 the Animal Welfare League of Queensland has been rescuing stray and abandoned cats and dogs and helping to prevent the birth of kittens and puppies that would become homeless through a spaying and neutering program.

For those members of the community needing financial assistance to provide medical care to their animal companions, the League runs a community veterinary clinic where services are available at reduced rates. For stray animals needing medical attention, the League operates a shelter veterinary clinic. Now, let’s visit the re-homing pens and learn about the organization’s adoption process.

This is one of the kitten re-homing pens and as you can see, they settle in pretty fast and they have lots of fun. And they have lots of toys and different things to play with, and when people come to adopt a kitten they do an interview and then they come down here and they can come into the pens and sit down on the floor with the kittens and play with them and work out which little kitten they want to fall in love with.

And that means people get a good opportunity to get to know the animal before they adopt and they enjoy coming here.

And we also have some people here having a look at the dogs; this is where they come to assess whether they would like to adopt one of them. If they have a dog of their own, they’re required to attend a meet and greet, which means they have to bring their own animal in, so that they can meet to see if they’re going to be happy together.

For its many years of compassionate commitment to animals, Supreme Master Ching Hai recently honored the Animal Welfare League of Queensland with the Shining World Compassion Award. The following is an excerpt from a warm letter the organization received from Supreme Master Ching Hai:

It is with great pleasure and gratitude that we present to the Animal Welfare League of Queensland the “Shining World Compassion Award.” This Award is presented in recognition of the League’s outstanding efforts to extend warm-hearted care and concern towards our animal friends in need. Since 1959, your organization has opened its hearts to countless helpless creatures, dependant on us for their well being, and currently cares for over 12,000 animals each year from the Gold Coast and surrounding areas.

For decades of abundant love and heartfelt care and affection, for your empathetic and gracious commitment to the care of precious lives, and for endless, untiring devotion, we hereby applaud and celebrate the nurturing deeds of the Animal Welfare League of Queensland, Incorporated. With grateful thanks to the dedicated staff, volunteers and supporters, With Great Honour, Love and Blessings, Supreme Master Ching Hai.

The League was presented with a selection of Supreme Master Ching Hai’s books, CDs and DVDs as well as a beautiful crystal Award plaque, which reads as follows:

In Recognition Of Decades Of Unconditional Love And Selfless Service, Nurturing And Re-homing Our Canine And Feline Friends In Need, With Kindness, Dedication And Heavenly Care And Protection, With Compliments And Gratitude For Your Immense Generosity Of Spirit And Enlightened Service To the Community.

To support the Animal Welfare League of Queensland’s noble mission, Supreme Master Ching Hai also made a contribution of AUD$10,000.

Thank you, oh, thank you so much! This has just come at a good time. We had a huge fire, it’s a couple of weeks ago, so we lost for the animals, all the bedding and food, and everything we had was stored down there. So, it’ll really help out a lot as well. We’ll put this towards our foster program that we have at the moment.

It’s quite a large program with about just over 300 animals out on foster care at the moment, little ones that are needing a home, just until they get back on their feet, a little bit more TLC so they can go through and get their permanent home, so this will definitely be put to good use, so it will be saving a lot of lives, actually. So, that’s wonderful, and our heartfelt thanks to Supreme Master Ching Hai for her generosity and compassion to our work and helping us save all these wonderful lives. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Denise, thank you.

Considering the League’s amazing achievements over the past 50 plus years, we asked the organization’s co-founder Mr. Neil Anderson how he feels about its progress.

It’s just wonderful, it’s really wonderful and I have to say my thanks goes out to all those people, staff, and wonderful volunteers.

We congratulate the Animal Welfare League of Queensland for its well-deserved recognition. May the League’s work continue to spread compassion for animals in the Gold Coast region and beyond.

For more details on the Animal Welfare League of Queensland, please visit

Thank you for joining us on this edition of the Shining World Compassion Award series. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment, after Noteworthy News. May the light of Heaven guide you to inner peace.

The sobering documentary “Earthlings,” directed by vegan filmmaker Shaun Monson and narrated by esteemed US actor Joaquin Phoenix demonstrates how we have severely mistreated our animal friends in the name of so-called “scientific research.”

20 years ago, the number of animals dying of tortures through the practice of vivisection was astronomical, estimated at 400,000 per day worldwide, and growing at an annual rate of 5%. Today that number is almost beyond comprehension. 19,000 per minute. 10 billion per year.

Join us for the conclusion of “Earthlings” Tuesday, May 4 on Stop Animal Cruelty.