The days of catfighting among sectors of the RSPCA movement are hopefully over with the near-completion of a merger of dozens of organisations which ran the more-than 40 shelters throughout the country.
The merger took effect on November 1, with the centres formerly run as autonomous local operations vested in the New Zealand Royal Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals.
It's now run from Wellington with three regions, with SPCA centres in Wairoa, Napier, Hastings, Central Hawke's Bay and Dannevirke under East Coast, Hawke's Bay and Tararua area manager Bruce Wills, who continues as manager of the Napier centre.
In an exacting two-year process, centres had ultimately voted unanimously for the merger, putting-aside differences which had plagued some areas, with individual centres voting also for the dissolving of their own organisations and the succession of assets to the national organisation.
Mr Wills said it started with having to get a mandate to investigate the possibilities, and it needed everyone "buying-in".