Better animal welfare education could be behind rising complaints

Wednesday, 19 September 2018

Dumping kittens in bags and boxes is prevalent in Nelson says the SPCA CEO, Andrea Midgen.

Animal welfare complaints are climbing in the region but the Nelson SPCA manager says the increase may mean a rising awareness of incidents.

In 2015 there were 338 callouts to animal welfare cases. That figure increased in 2016 to 408 and last year, the number had grown to 446.

Nelson SPCA manager Donna Walzl said judging by how busy the inspectors had been, she expected the number to have risen again at the end of this year.

She said the rise in welfare incidents may mean people were becoming more aware of the SPCA and they 'feel like they can call us'.

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While the welfare complaints were mainly about dogs, they also included chickens, goats and cats, she said.

'We get quite a few rural complaints, particularly at the end of winter when there's not a lot of food around,' Walzl said.

This collar was found embedded under a stray cat's arm in Nelson. Brad Pitt's collar was too loose, getting caught under his arm and embedding into his flesh causing an open wound.

A 'big percentage' of the calls were about dogs not being exercised and in the summer, there were 'multiple' callouts rescuing dogs from hot cars. That was a 'real problem and takes up a lot of time.'

SPCA chief executive Andrea Midgen the public was learning 'what's ok, and what's not ok' for animal welfare.

She said the mistreatment of animals reported was possibly always happening, 'we just didn't know about it'.

'In the past, someone might have seen something and thought that doesn't look too good, but not really done anything about it, whereas today, they're doing something about it.'

Midgen said a classic case was dogs being chained up in the back yard.

'That's not illegal but if they're underweight, no shelter, no water, no food, not exercised regularly – that's not acceptable.'

Another common report was pets not getting appropriate vet treatment for broken bones or abscesses because owners couldn't afford it or didn't realise how much pain their pets were in.

Tihei the Rottweiler-Huntaway cross in Hamilton was chained to a kennel, starved of food, denied drinking water and covered in sores and welts.

'Cats and dogs are very good at covering up pain. It's a natural instinct because in the wild, anything that's weak or injured is prone to be attacked.'

She said abandoned kittens on the side of the road and in parks was also 'quite prevalent in Nelson'.

But she said the next generation of pet owners was already being better educated on responsible pet ownership.

Midgen said children were learning through their school curriculum about the right way to take care of animals and SPCA events were always supporting their education programme.

'I think people are talking about these sorts of issues a bit more than they used to.'

She said if anyone had seen anything they thought was mistreatment of animals, they should take a photo or video and email it to their local SPCA.

'The more facts that they can provide, it's a lot easier for us to investigate something.'