CAQA Riverbend Animal Care
Riverbend Animal Care is a regional animal welfare and veterinary organisation serving northern Victoria. It runs a companion animal shelter and adoption centre, a general practice veterinary clinic with a surgical suite, a boarding kennel and cattery, a grooming salon and a behaviour and training service. Under contract to a local council it also delivers animal management services, including the collection and impounding of stray and unregistered animals. Its customers range from private pet owners and rescue groups to farms, retirement villages and a greyhound rehoming program. Every year the organisation cares for around 2,400 animals through the shelter and sees more than 9,000 clinic consultations.
The organisation operates from three sites. The Bendigo region site holds head office, the shelter, adoption centre and animal management depot. The Shepparton clinic runs consultations six days a week with an on-call roster for after-hours emergencies. The Echuca region centre houses the boarding kennels, cattery and grooming salon. Work is organised into six departments: Veterinary Clinic, Shelter and Adoptions, Boarding and Grooming, Animal Management Services, Behaviour and Training, and Business Support. Animal attendants work a seven-day rotating roster with early feeding and cleaning shifts, while clinic and reception staff work standard days with a shared weekend roster.
Riverbend manages quality, safety and compliance through a controlled document system and five record-keeping systems that every worker uses daily. Animal welfare is governed by Victorian animal welfare and domestic animal legislation and the code of practice for shelters and pounds. The clinic operates under veterinary practice registration requirements and keeps a controlled drugs register. Infection control, safe animal handling and zoonotic disease risks are the main workplace hazards, so every new starter completes induction on restraint, hygiene routines and incident reporting before working unsupervised. A monthly welfare and safety review examines incidents, complaints, animal outcomes and audit findings, and corrective actions are tracked to closure.