List Of Shame

30 cases of gross animal abuse (January-July 2003)

January

In Rotorua, a 12-week-old kitten is discovered dead after being strung up from a tree. The SPCA finds scratch marks around the tree, suggesting the kitten had a long painful death. A graphic description of the kitten’s fate is found painted on the owner’s house.

A cat in Te Awamutu is discovered with severe wounds on his neck and with a broken shoulder. X-rays reveal he had been shot twice or more with a slug gun and also has a pellet imbedded in his chest.

Thomasina, a four-year-old Hastings cat, is shot twice at close range with air gun pellets. Her back legs are paralysed by a blood clot . The incident takes place in a built-up area where children are playing.

A dead cat is found in a cage by the Wairau River in Marlborough. Three live kittens are found close to their mother’s body.

February

Bam-Bam, a goat from Netherton, is dragged more than 50 metres along a road by a car.

A cat is discovered drowned in a stream, close to Paremoremo.

Repeated acts of cruelty are reported concerning the ducks in a Pukekohe reserve. In a number of cases, rocks had been thrown at the ducks, who were maimed or killed in such incidents.

A five-week-old Auckland kitten is thrown out of the window of a car travelling at speed. The SPCA finds that the kitten is underweight and extremely hungry, as well as suffering from a sore leg, concussion and a cut lip.

Zac, a cat from Hamilton, has fish hooks pushed through his back legs before being dragged behind a car. There’s also evidence that he’s been hit by a vehicle.

March

Six puppies are found abandoned in a roadside pull-off area near Waihi. The puppies had been left in a tied-up plastic bag. They are covered with fleas and severely malnourished.

A five-month-old puppy from Upper Hutt has at least 12 slug gun pellet wounds as well as three pellets lodged in its body. A veterinarian says that the puppy was either trapped or chained-up before being shot-at.

The remains of a duck blown apart by a home-made bomb are discovered in a Lower Hutt park. The body of another duck is found floating nearby with a cigarette lighter hanging round its neck and wired through its mouth.

April

A friendly female rottweiler from Northland is found with a gaping wound around her neck. The SPCA believes that someone tried to put the dog down by slitting its throat and then abandoned her. More than eighty stitches are needed to repair skin and tissue.

Auckland SPCA discovers a dog with a missing back paw and a bleeding stump where the paw had been. Infections on the Labrador cross’s other legs were caused by standing for several weeks in its own faeces. The SPCA says the dog would have been in incredible pain for some time.

A Taupo couple discovers their two six-month-old puppies stabbed to death and dumped by a stream.

A female pit bull-cross and six puppies are found dead in a black plastic rubbish bag in Kaikohe. Three live pups are also in the bag.

Unknown offenders rip a horn off a goat, chained close to the roadside near Morrinsville.

In the Auckland suburb of Howick, a cat called Psycho sustains an air rifle wound in one of her back legs. Psycho appears to be in great pain.

In the Auckland suburb of Devonport, a Burmese cat called Bubble is found to have a perforated bowel and damage to his small intestine and kidney. X-rays show that Bubble has been shot seven times with an air gun. Fellow Burmese, Squeak, is also found to have an air pellet wound.

May

Cosmo, a four-year-old black cat from Motueka, requires surgery to have his tail removed after it was skinned from one end to the other.

In Blenheim, a duck is found wandering around in a distressed condition with a kebab skewer speared through its beak.

Three pet chickens from Te Awamutu are found stabbed to death with pencils.

June

The Horowhenua SPCA discovers Marama, a six-month-old puppy, surrounded by mud and faeces and tied to a tree with a lead so short she can hardly stand.

Waikato SPCA finds a ginger cat with his front paws taped together with masking tape. The cat also has masking tape around his face and jaw with just his nose exposed.

A 15 year-old Persian cat from Taradale is tortured, drowned and then dumped on his owners’ lawn. “Ratbag” was found with his fur and skin torn off in clumps and his eyes gouged. He was covered in leaves and river silt.

July

In Wellington, a kitten is thrown from a third floor balcony by a 17-year-old youth who is having an argument with his girlfriend, the kitten’s owner. One of the kitten’s legs has to be amputated.

Zelda, a cat from the Auckland suburb of Glen Innes, has her eye removed after it haemorrhages as a result of being shot at by a slug gun.

A Northland man pleads guilty in the Kaikohe High Court to mistreating a cat. The man trapped the cat using a noose-type snare, clubbed the cat with a child’s softball bat and then dumped the cat, assuming it was dead. The cat was found alive but badly injured by SPCA inspectors. One of the cat’s eyes was hanging out of its socket.

A dog is discovered wandering Christchurch’s Port Hills with her mouth taped shut and one of her eyes hanging from its socket. Canterbury SPCA describes the dog as “thin as a broom”.

Four emaciated calves are found on the grass verge of Auckland’s northern motorway near Albany. One of the calves is too weak to stand.

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