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11 September 2008

  

 

  


SPCA ‘Satisfied’ with outcome
in starving dog case 

Nelson SPCA inspector Craig Crowley says he is ‘satisfied’ with the outcome of a court case involving the prosecution of a Nelson woman found guilty of failing to provide the physical, health and behavioral needs for a case involving a severely emaciated dog. The woman received a fine of $400 + $130 court costs + SPCA costs of $182.80 after pleading guilty to the charges.

The charges were laid after the SPCA received a call out from a member of the public who had found the dog wandering in the street, and was concerned about its emaciated state.

 

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SPCA Inspector Dan Auger who responded to the call out says he could immediately see that the young staffy cross male pup was severely underweight. 

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He brought it back to Nelson SPCA where it was
photographed before being taken to Stoke Veterinary Clinic.

According to the vet’s report, the 6 to 9 month old dog should have weighed around 20kg, but was less than half of that weight at just 9.9kg.  The dog had no body fat and had severe muscle wasting.  The report stated that the dog would have been starved over a long period rather than experienced a sudden loss of condition.  It had been kept in a run and was unlikely to have been exercised, as it had long toenails and would not have had the strength to exercise due to its wasted condition.

The vet report concluded that the dog had been rescued by the SPCA just in time, and would otherwise have died within a short period.


Photographed on arrival at the SPCA
 


Within two days of being rescued by the Nelson SPCA
and being properly fed, the dog had gained 2.7kg. The dog has now been surrendered to
Nelson SPCA and will be re-homed. He has since gained over 10kgs and is now a healthy 23kg.
 


 

Dan Auger says;

“As inspectors, our job is primarily to educate people about animal welfare.  However we are not afraid to take prosecutions when the circumstances warrant it, such as in this case.  This was an obvious case of neglect and completely unacceptable. 

All animals need the five freedoms of;

  • sufficient food and water

  • adequate shelter

  • opportunity to display normal patterns of behavior

  • humane physical handling

  • rapid diagnosis and treatment of any significant injury or disease.  

If people are unable to meet those basic requirements, they should surrender their animals to the SPCA.”
 


SUCCESS STORIES

 
 

 

 One of the Family

 

 

 

 

    

 

Former All Black Norm Hewitt and
Shelly Ryan from Auckland SPCA brought the 'One of the Family' campaign to
Nelson on August 5th.

Norm and Shelly visited two schools and spoke to nearly 600 children from years
7 and 8. The first school visited was Birchwood School in Stoke. They very
kindly lent the hall to Broad Green School
as Birchwood’s children are too young. However after doing the presentation
Norm made some time to see some of Birchwood’s kids and talk to them a little about animal cruelty and the way it links to family violence, he even managed to squeeze in a Haka with the lads.
 


Norm and Shelly then moved onto Nelson Intermediate School where much the same presentation was given. Shelly spoke about the “5 freedoms” which every animal has a right to by law. She also showed some videos showing the SPCA's work.

Norm got the kids laughing with funny stories from when he was a child. This laughter was soon silenced when the story turned to how violent his father was towards his mother and how he took comfort outside in his animals company to get him away from the noises of his mother being beaten. He explained to the children how family violence links to animal abuse in a language they could understand.
Norm also spoke about becoming an All Black and how proud he was of that, not to mention what a good dancer he was as he won the “Dancing with the Stars contest” on T.V.  Norm found the time to have a little dance with one lucky girl from each school visit.
 

  
   

     

     
 

At the end of each presentation Norm and Shelly gave out prizes to kids who could answer questions on the talks that had just been given, some lucky kids even got NELSON SPCA prizes like drink bottles and L.E.D. key rings.
 

  
  All the staff from the Nelson SPCA would like to thank Norm and Shelly for
coming to Nelson and hope to see you back here again soon!