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/.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1802/2018_List_of_Shame_Media_FO.pdf

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