It Happens at Home

Despite New Zealand being a country promoted as a place of adventure, with wide open spaces and photogenic natural beauty there is a seamy underside in the treatment of our animals; particularly those under domestic care.

One of the 33 dogs killed at the Wellsford property in 2010

Domestic animals in New Zealand have come under a lot of harsh treatment in recent years and is one of the worst places for abuse to happen according to SPCA chief inspector Charles Cadwallader. Workers of SPCA have come across some extreme cases, such as: dealing with a man who used duct tape to hold the muzzle of his dog closed then later slitting her throat, finding a dog's facial injury had been left unattended resulting in half of the face rotting away, dogs being hung from trees in Gisborne and a mass-shooting of 33 dogs (including 21 puppies) near Wellsford.

In 2011, SPCA's Annual List of Shame featured some of the worst cases they had ever come across - July 2011 saw the prosecution of a man who had beaten a 6-month old puppy to death with a golf club and in the Waikato region, a 12 week old kitten was beaten and burned to death in front of the owner's daughter and granddaughter. In fact quite recently, a puppy had to be rescued from its 12-13 year old owner and friends after witnesses saw the pup being kicked, struck against a tree and thrown through a basketball hoop.