Monday 26th February
SPCA announces worst cases of animal cruelty in New Zealand
The SPCA List of Shame has been released today, highlighting 11 of the most shameful cases of animal cruelty in 2017.
The list includes a five year old Lab starved to death, a duck with its beak blown up by a firecracker and a neglected
horse left in pain with a deformed eye and engorged head injury.
The List of Shame is being released ahead of the 2018 SPCA Annual Appeal from 9th to 11th March, which aims to raise
awareness and funding to support the 15,000+ animal welfare complaints SPCA receive each year, along with ongoing
education to prevent animal cruelty.
SPCA Chief Executive Andrea Midgen, says, “We need the public’s support to end this shameful cruelty in New Zealand. We
receive almost no government funding to run the SPCA Inspectorate, which costs approximately $9 million every year.”
The face of this year’s campaign is Sully, a spaniel-poodle cross owned by a woman previously prosecuted by the SPCA and
disqualified from owning animals. While in her care, Sully experienced extreme psychological trauma that led to severe
anxiety and the inability to make eye contact.
Melissa, the inspector who rescued Sully, said: “I found him locked in a garage where he was living with his owner and
another dog. There is evidence to support the dogs were never let outside, and never interacted with anyone other than
his owner, resulting in serious emotional trauma and severe separation anxiety.”
After months of successful rehabilitation, Sully now lives happily with his new family at a home on Auckland’s North
Shore with a big back yard.
This year’s List of Shame contains some shocking cases of neglect and cruelty, including 600 starving chickens,
roosters, and ducks with severe feather loss found in an overcrowded environment trying to feed on the decomposing birds
around them, and a dog hit by a car with de-gloving injuries to the bone on both hind legs left by its owner to suffer
with no veterinary aid.
“We know this list is very upsetting, but this is the reality of what our Inspectors see in their jobs. These horrific
cases of neglect and violence towards animals reinforces the vital need for the SPCA’s work,” says Andrea. “The SPCA is
here to stand up for any animal that is physically abused, abandoned, neglected, tortured and in pain. It is a very big
job and we need all the support we can get.”
Donations for this year’s SPCA Annual Appeal can be made to street collectors around the country from Friday 9th to
Sunday 11th March, or online http://www.spcaannualappeal.org.nz/.
-Ends-