Summer brings unwanted offspring

Tauranga SPCA operations manager Margaret Rawiri with 8-week-old Noah found near the rubbish bins on Boxing Day. Noah requires an operation to amputate a front leg. Photo / Andrew Warner

Demand for Tauranga SPCA services is also soaring and the organisation is bracing itself as it heads into its busiest time of year.

Unwanted cats, kittens, puppies and adult dogs are again pouring into the Greerton centre, including an adult heeler dog found tied up at the SPCA front gate two days before Christmas.

Tauranga SPCA operations manager Margaret Rawiri said while the centre was not completely full, animals were coming in all the time, including four Staffi puppies found in a box dumped underneath a bridge in Paengaroa just before Christmas.

In addition to the 35-plus animals at the centre, there were another 15 puppies and 25 kittens in foster care homes which, once they were old enough, would come on stream for adoption.

December to April is the busiest time for kittens, as kitten season began just before Christmas.

Mrs Rawiri said every year people turned up with boxes of kittens and puppies found in parks, and this holiday season two "exhausted" 5-week-old labrador puppies had been brought in after they were found running around in a paddock.

Among the 20-odd kittens was a 6-week-old found near the rubbish bins at Armitage Hotel on Boxing Day by a staff member. It had a serious front leg injury, she said.

Named Noah, it needs a $350 operation to amputate the leg, which had been wrenched out of its socket, possibly in a fall.

"If anyone wants to make a donation towards the operation we would love to hear from them."

Mrs Rawiri said if people de-sexed their pets then the SPCA would not be faced with the huge problem of having to care for and re-house so many unwanted animals.

"I don't see a time when the SPCA won't be needed. If anything demand for our services is going to increase even further," she said.

"We have also received a number of complaints about people leaving their dogs in vehicles; and dogs chained up outside without adequate shelter and water. Sometimes the dog had been sitting there all day."

Mrs Rawiri said some people want to be with their animals all the time including when they went shopping and leave them in their car for extended periods of time.

"Some people try to leave their car window down one to two inches but that doesn't help much. I doubt the owner would last very long if they had to sit in their hot car for half an hour or more."

Mrs Rawiri said 65 animals were adopted out between Christmas Eve and January 4, which was a much better result than the same period last year. The total included 40 kittens and 12 cats.

While the SPCA would love to hear from anyone wanting to adopt an animal, people adopting one as a gift for a relative was discouraged, she said.

"We like to say animals choose their owners and it's not always a match made in heaven."