Levin pet shop inquiry continues
A Levin pet shop was found to not be breaching animal welfare standards at the time of an inspection prompted by complaints to the SPCA.
But the SPCA is continuing to investigate Levin Pet World and has made recommendations to the owners about improving aspects of the store.
SPCA inspectors visited the store on Friday March 24, after receiving complaints by a member of the public.
Complainant Dana Kidd said she was horrified by the conditions she saw animals living in during a visit on March 21.
Her allegations included seeing about 10 dead fish in tanks, birds ‘‘crammed into cages’’ and rabbits and guinea pigs living in the same area.
Following last Friday’s visit, SPCA communications manager Jessie Gilchrist said there were no breaches of the Animal Welfare Act 1999 at the time of the inspection.
As the investigation was ongoing, the SPCA would not comment on specific details related to recommendations made to the store owners, Gilchrist said.
‘‘Our inspectorate will continue to work with and engage with the pet shop owners.’’
Shop owner Lucy Carline said there were no animal welfare problems at the store and she invited people to look for themselves.
Carline said the SPCA inspector told her she could separate the rabbits and guinea pigs if she wanted to.
Previously, the SPCA said it was not best practice to keep guinea pigs and rabbits in the same cage, and care needed to be taken to ensure no bullying took place between the animals.
Carline said since the ‘‘malicious’’ attack on her store she had received hate mail from people as far away as Belgium and England.
‘‘I’ve had [people] telling me I’m a disgusting person. ‘‘It’s just what you call trolling.’’ Despite the Facebook post
‘‘Our inspectorate will continue to work with and engage with the pet shop owners.’’ SPCA communications manager Jessie Gilchrist
receiving more than 1500 likes and hundreds of shares, Carline and her husband Grant had received a lot of support from customers, she said.
Over the weekend there had been ‘‘more business than usual’’, she said. ‘‘Saturday was actually crazy. ‘‘We’d like to say thank you to people that have been supportive.’’
People who took the time to come in knew the allegations were rubbish, Carline said.
Elaine Graves, who has been buying birds and bird feed from the shop for seven years, said she could not understand why people were attacking the owners.
‘‘I go in there and they are friendly as anything.’’
Some of the people who were criticising the store probably hadn’t even visited it, she said.
Kidd said she thought it was a shame the shop had received SPCA approval during the inspection.
‘‘A lot of people are wanting me to take further action, but I think if the SPCA have made their decision, there isn’t much more I can do.’’