’Tis not the season to abandon pets
From behind the bars of their SPCA cage six tiny kittens gazed in confused disbelief, squeaky miaows protesting their confinement.
These are just a few of the SPCA’s Christmas orphans. The five week olds were found in a cardboard box in a Manurewa park — a typical tale of abandonment.
Auckland SPCA chief executive Bob Kerridge says it is their busiest time of year, with 40 abandoned animals a day coming to the Auckland Animal Village in Mangere.
By Christmas Eve he expects the number to have risen to at least 80 a day.
“We have a lot of unwanted animals, who through no fault of their own have no home to go to,” he said. “When the animals come in they are very lost. It’s in their eyes, that lost look, but you can also see hope.”
Mr Kerridge, who has been working at the SPCA for many years, said every year he hoped there would be fewer animals abandoned, but his hope seems to be in vain.
Animals are abandoned or surrendered for a variety of reasons, such as people moving house or the animal being antisocial or causing allergies. And at this time of the year they got a lot of baby animals, he said.
Some typical cases are nine guinea pigs found in a sack in a Mangere paddock, a mouse called Wedgy, who has outworn his use as a classroom pet, and a cat with two kittens surrendered because the owner no longer likes cats.
Mr Kerridge said the problem was not just abandonment, but also animals not being properly looked after when the owners went on holiday.
“If you have someone looking after your animal, make sure the person is totally trustworthy, because sometimes the animal gets neglected.”
Sometimes people showed a complete lack of thought when making holiday provisions for their animals, he said.
“Someone once left a dog in a garage with seven open cans of pet food labelled Monday to Sunday and expected the dog to understand.”
There is no doubt the 40 Auckland staff are in for a busy Christmas. There is a pool of 860 volunteers to call on, but staff say they can never have too much help.
‘Someone once left a dog in a garage with seven open cans of pet food labelled Monday to Sunday and expected the dog ’ to understand.
BON KERRIDGE, SPCA.