Selfish Act costs SPCA

Rubbish dumped at Levin's SPCA charity shop.

Levin's SPCA charity shop has again fallen victim to the selfish acts of others, costing the charity and the animals in its care.
The back doorstep of the shop on Oxford St in Levin had often been a popular dumping spot for rubbish.

On Tuesday morning this week, SPCA volunteers were faced with the especially disgusting job of cleaning up stained and torn underwear and used sanitary pads strewn through other rubbish that was left on the charity's back doorstep.
SPCA manager Gabriele Lambert said most of it had to go to landfill and there was only the odd salvageable item.

"There may have been some items we could have used but because of all the disgusting things we will have to throw it all away," she said.

Faced with the daunting task of cleaning up that mess, the deeply disappointed manager and other shop volunteers pulled on rubber gloves and began.

Ms Lambert said the store had to remain closed until they were done, leaving customers waiting at the door, which meant loss of potential income for the shop.

"Luckily we had our skip bin emptied the night before, but we will have to pay for it to be emptied again," she said. "If you wouldn't want to buy it in our shop, please don't dump it here."

Among the rubbish shop staff found someone's electricity bill with their name and address on it.

Some of the money raised through the charity shop and the hard work of its volunteers that should go to help Levin's animal shelter, will now again be spent on disposing of 'selfish people's rubbish', Ms Lambert said.
Ms Lambert said that her volunteers worked really hard and to see that money spent on dump fees was more than disappointing for all of them.