The Animal Rights and Rescue Group is a registered charity that was formed in 1995, following the closing of the RSPCA branch in the region.

The group was started by Barbara Steffenson and a small group of dedicated people who worked tirelessly to help the unwanted, injured and neglected animals. The group continues to work seven days a week and is always urgently in need of committed volunteers and foster carers.

Through generous donations to Animal Rights & Rescue Group, and a huge amount of work by our members to raise funds, with garage sales, 2nd hand clothing and goods, markets and stalls we try to cover the costs involved in helping these animals.

The animals are mainly cared for in Foster Carer homes, with a few living at our Centre in Lismore. We are desperately trying to raise funds to build much-needed emergency accommodation.

Our network of wonderful Veterinary Surgeons assist in low cost desexing, which is paramount to reduce the large numbers of unwanted pets currently being euthanised daily in pounds across Australia.

Where breaches of the Cruelty to Animals Act occurs ARRG refers to the local RSPCA Inspector or the police and supports and assists where possible.

We are a NO KILL group, which does restrict the number of animals we can accept into care due to the number of carers at any given time.

Our Emergency Care Shelter will be important in the growing number of animals that find themselves homeless with their owners, are victim of domestic violence or those needing care for an animal due to emergency health problems of their owners.

ARRG recognises the need to educate our young people about the responsibilities of owning and caring of a family pet. We have participated in education programmes for schools to assist our young and hopefully give a brighter future for our pets.

We would like to establish a low-cost desexing programme to assist in the prevention of unwanted litters of puppies and kittens. We see a mobile desexing clinic as a necessity to assist rural people in desexing their animals.

We will continue to represent the pet as a valuable part of our community and family, and will fight to ensure they are not treated as a disposable item.