Broken Hill has seen a huge decrease in the number of abandoned dogs being put down, dropping from 80 per cent to just 3 per cent in five years.

The turnaround in the far west New South Wales town is largely thanks to the hard work of a network of volunteers who foster the animals, rehabilitate them and find them new homes.

Council ranger and Broken Hill Pet Rescue president Alicia Wayman said the town's abandoned pet problem was and still is common in many regional areas.

"A lot of regional and remote areas have very high euthanasia rates for their animals," she said.

"The main reason is overpopulation, over-breeding, people not keeping their dogs in their yard to prevent over-breeding and unnecessary litters."

Ms Wayman said it had been clear something had to be done.

"We realised we had a major problem in Broken Hill and we needed to do something," she said.

"We needed to find homes for animals that were coming through the pound."

'They get under your skin'

Working as a ranger, Ms Wayman was on the frontline of the problem, a situation she said took its toll.

"It's very taxing on everybody involved — staff at the pound, the vets that are having to administer the euthanasia, the rangers having to assist with that," she said.

"It's extremely draining physically, and emotionally it's not a nice place to be."

As pressure built, Ms Wayman found herself taking animals home.

"You kind of had to not make any connection with any of your animals, because once you'd made that connection they'd really tug at your heartstrings," she said.

"Every now and then you'd get one that would get under your skin.

"I'd bring it home, foster it for a while, then look for a local person that was after that type of animal.

"That was obviously on a very small scale, just one animal at a time."

Alicia Wayman and Tina Knott are pleased with the results. ( ABC: Aimee Volkofsky )

A network of carers

In a town of just 18,000 people and with up to 900 dogs delivered to the pound annually, Ms Wyman said finding homes was the biggest barrier to reducing euthanasia rates.

"The number of animals that were ending up in the pound far outweighed the number of local people that were looking to adopt," she said.

Ms Wayman started building relationships with other pounds, rescuers, dog adoption groups and transport companies to find other places the dogs could go.

She said it was a slow start, with some groups hesitant to become involved.

"Because we had such bad statistics a few were reluctant to try to work with us, until they understood we were trying to turn that around and change that," she said.

This year Broken Hill Pet Rescue has up to 30 different foster homes, taking in anything from dogs and cats to goats and chickens.

"Every one of our members has their own niche that they're really good at, things they really enjoy doing. Everybody brings their own set of skills," Ms Wayman said.

Honey is one of those 'rescue fails' who came in to Alicia Wayman's home as a foster dog and stayed on. ( ABC: Aimee Volkofsky )

One of those is foster carers is Tina Knott, who has adopted at least 500 animals since 2012.

"I've loved animals all my life," she said.

"They were slowly dropping down in numbers and I thought I don't want to keep obtaining animals, but if I could foster them I could help the strays around town."

Ms Knott said becoming a foster carer had been highly rewarding.

"Sometimes it's sad, sometimes it's extremely happy, but it's such a satisfying job to be doing. It's wonderful," she said.

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The biggest hazard Ms Knott identified for foster carers was acquiring more animals.

"We've had a couple of what you call 'foster fails'. They're just too special. They can't go and you just keep them," she said.

A last resort

Some of the animals taken on by foster carers have been so unwell or abused that in the past it would have been impossible to find a home for them.

"There's a lot that in a lot of other situations they would have been euthanased, but we work with them," Ms Wayman said.

Hawk was one of those dogs that would almost certainly have been put down in a time when resources were stretched.

He was spotted in a yard by a tradesman, underweight, with chronic ear infections, tumours on his underbelly and his nails so long they had grown around into the pads of his feet, meaning he was unable to walk.

The tradesman asked the owners if he could take the dog, who found his way into Ms Wayman's care.

She said sometimes the job of a foster carer was to make animals comfortable in their last days.

"He has a lot of health problems and they will be ongoing, but he's happy here and he's being taken care of," she said.