The home also hosts veterinary students from the nearby University of Melbourne in Parkville.
“In the late ’80s, one of the things that we did change was the perception of the Lost Dogs’ Home to get people to come from all over Melbourne to adopt animals,” Smith said.
“If you move them to Spotswood or anywhere further west or further north, you’re going to lose all those potential clients. Furthermore, there’s another 15,000 people planned to be living in this precinct [Arden], and they will have pets too.”
He said the new Arden station meant it would be easier for shelter staff to get to work.
“These days a lot of people who work in places like the Lost Dogs’ Home come from further afield. But if you put it in Broadmeadows or Werribee or wherever it’s even harder, and it’s not going to service the same areas,” he said.
The shelter has a second, smaller facility in Cranbourne in Melbourne’s south-east. The Lort Smith Animal Hospital, which offers adoptions, also operates in North Melbourne.
The initial Arden Structure Plan, published in 2022, said the site would be used for an outdoor community sports area with a pavilion, playing courts and playgrounds, and that the Lost Dogs’ Home heritage building would be repurposed.
But in tender documents issued last year, the site has now been earmarked for “water management” – or flood mitigation. The low-lying Arden area is flood-prone, and Smith was chief executive during a major flood in December 1989, during which he was photographed by The Age in a boat with retrieving dogs that had escaped and were playing in floodwaters on Gracie Street.
“Even though [the water] was that depth on the corner of Gracie Street and Langford Street, it didn’t affect any of the kennels,” he said. “I think it’s a perfect facility for that place.
“Leave the Lost Dogs’ Home there. It’s really a waste of money as well, to try and [re]build the facilities that are there. In the time that I was there, we spent about $15 million on developing the facilities, including the Frank Samways vet [clinic], the cat shelter, the dangerous dog section – all of that.”
Premier Jacinta Allan was asked at a press conference on Thursday about the leaked letter, and said the assertion that negotiations had stalled was “not the advice I had”.
“There’s a process under way with the operators of the Lost Dogs’ Home, and we’ve committed to support them … both through the process itself and with support to find a new home,” she said. She refused to say what the timeline for relocation would be, or the estimated costs.
The premier’s office declined a further opportunity to respond directly to Smith’s comments.
The Lost Dogs’ Home has been approached for comment.
