Welcome excellent viewers to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. The Animal Rights and Rescue Group, an Australian non-profit organization founded by Barbara Steffensen in 1995, seeks to rescue homeless, abused, abandoned and unwanted animal companions and place them with foster carers until they can be taken in by a suitable home. It is the only no-kill rescue group in the Northern Rivers region in the state of New South Wales. No-kill means that no animal is ever euthanized unless they are so seriously injured or ill that they cannot be saved.

I moved to the region about 20 years ago and then, just in a matter of a few years, I realized there were situations here that needed action to do with animal welfare and cruelty.

I’ve been involved with animal welfare issues and animal rights for many, many years and I wanted the message to get through that it wasn’t only about rescuing animals, unwanted animals and abused animals; it was representing their rights too; because without their rights then this can continue. And so it was important for me to let the people know that there was an element of fighting for their rights, as well as rescuing them from their current situation.

Ms. Steffensen began small, using her own home to house animals for a number of years.

We always knew we wanted to expand the program. I mean this region is a large region that we deal with and, you always feel as if you are only helping such a small number, that you want to do so much more. And originally we operated from my home for eight years and I had turned a lot of the outdoor areas into areas for the foster dogs. So a lot of them lived with me.

And then the foster care program grew and we got more foster carers on board, cats and dogs. And for eight years we operated from that private home. But we had planned, we always had a goal of building a center and the next step was in 2005 we moved into our center here that we built in Lismore.

Non-kill in itself is still very new in Australia. They are still very geared towards the traditional shelters, which have a deadline date, instead of having the belief that all animals given individual care can be rehabilitated and re-homed.

Our animals live in foster care homes, which is very different, so they get individual treatment. Sadly a lot of them are abused and it takes a while for them to recover and so that’s part of our program. The rescue involves whatever they need to recover; whether it’s veterinary treatment or emotional healing. And foster homes are the only way you can do that.

Since its humble beginnings, the Group has rescued and re-homed over 10,000 animal companions. How many animals do they save on an annual basis? The number has grown every year, from 1995. And so the current figure is well over 1200, closer to 1500 last year. And they go into foster care. All the animals live in private homes, which is a wonderful system. There’s an organization in America that has a wonderful slogan, that every day the animal is with that organization and with their foster carers, they will be even more ready for their adoption, they will be more adoptable. And that’s true because you bring training in and the socialization and you just get them ready for that new home. And also it gives us a great insight into what they can deal with for their new home. And we match the home to the animal’s needs and not the other way round.

Let’s now meet Jennifer, a volunteer with the Group.

I decided to come up here once a week and do what I could to help. It’s just a very worthwhile cause. It makes you feel really good working for an organization that doesn’t euthanize animals.

What Barbara and all of her foster carers and volunteers do here is really worthwhile and wonderful. Animals have no voice and so we have to speak for them and so many of them are abandoned. As you can see all these animals here are absolutely beautiful little things and they are so dependent on us for their welfare like beautiful Ruby. It’s a really great place.

The Group also assists local residents in re-homing their animal companion if they feel they are unable to care for them any longer. Sometimes the Group can resolve issues so that re-homing is not necessary.

We also help with people that ring and they feel that they have to re-home the pet. So we’ll then tell them the truth about the statistics and what’s happening in shelters and pounds, the high number of animals that are killed. And they are often very shocked when they realize that they might be even putting their own dog into that same situation.

So we start talking about how can we help. We even have gone out and built fences, numerous times, where they say they are having problems with the dog jumping. We do temporary care; we get dog training for them, we go out there and visit the pet and see what’s going on with the situation. We give them some confidence and some faith again, because that’s what they often need and also we tell them, “If you still feel you can’t cope, we will re-home your pet, but we do it safely.”

Please stay tuned to Supreme Master Television. We’ll be right back with more on the wonderful work of the Animal Rights and Rescue Group in New South Wales, Australia.

Welcome back to Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants featuring Barbara Steffensen, vegan founder and president of the Animal Rights and Rescue Group in New South Wales, Australia. Another way the Group assists the community is by taking care of the animal companions of those who are hospitalized.

So we looked at how we could expand, reaching to the pets to help them through people, and so we developed a relationship with the local agencies here such as the hospital, the women’s refuge, the Richmond Mental Health Clinic, and so we found that their programs don’t actually include any assistance for their client’s pets.

And so we’ve worked with them closely for about eight years where we’re often going into people’s homes to look after their pets while the people are hospitalized, or while they going in for regular treatment and some of those social workers actually just call us the moment they know that their client is going into the hospital or had a (mental) breakdown, or is in need for some treatment, and while that’s helping people it’s still reaching the pets that need help.

One of our main aims is to do everything we can to keep a pet in their home. Because otherwise in the alternative they may end up in a shelter or in a pound. And so it’s vital that you provide assistance and support if that pet has got a loving home and a person that cares about them, but if they are having a crisis or are ill, then you do everything you can to keep that pet there until the person is back on track again.

Some people may feel a need to talk to someone about whether they should adopt an animal companion. Ms. Steffensen now relates a touching story about a Group volunteer who assisted an elderly gentleman named Keith who was undergoing challenging times.

We’re always here to talk to people. And I think that’s how we manage to see some of the most wonderful stories, because a lot of people don’t know who to talk to. There are not a lot of places you can go to talk about companion animals. You’ve got your vet clinics, but that obviously if you don’t have a pet you can’t go there. So they can come here and talk to us.

And we find an area that we’re often helping is with the senior people. They get to an age where they feel they shouldn’t have another pet, and maybe they’re not getting the support from their family to have another pet. And there’s one story that just epitomized the whole thing.

A dear gentleman rang us and he was very unsure of himself on the phone whether he should be doing this, but he just wanted to talk to somebody. And he’d sadly lost his wife and his old dog in a very short space of time, and he was just lost, and he was ready to give up. And he’d just thought he’d feel his way and see if we could talk to him, and so of course we did. And we encouraged him to consider and to look at a few of our little dogs. He wanted a little dog and we just had one really perfect for him and that was Reggie.

So anyway, our volunteer, Louise, and our volunteers take a lot of time with each case, took that case on. And she went to his home and talked to him and explained, and checked the garden and whatever. And then she helped Reggie and Keith; she did the introduction. And Reggie and Keith are absolutely inseparable. It’s beautiful to see. I drive home through a particular part of Lismore every day from work here, and I go up this particular main road, and nearly every afternoon, there’s Keith and Reggie marching down the road with the lead on, having their walks.

And he is just so bright now, well both of them are very bright, and Keith brings Reggie over here in a taxi every couple of weeks just to see us and to have someone to talk to. And that’s just a person that would have not have had a friend, who would not have had company, and would have just, lived the last few years alone. So taking the time to talk to people about all sorts of different kind of adoptions really works.

We greatly appreciate Animal Rights and Rescue Group’s deep dedication to finding abandoned and unwanted companion animals new homes. Please join us again tomorrow on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants for Part 2 of our program where we will feature the presentation of the Shining World Compassion Award to Barbara Steffensen.

For more information on the Animal Rights and Rescue Group, please visit

Good friends, it was a pleasure having your company on today’s program. Up next is Enlightening Entertainment after Noteworthy News here on Supreme Master Television. May Love always encompass our planet.