$1m to spend but SPCA can't agree

A $1 million bequest to Bay of Plenty animals has gone sour as the local branch of the SPCA turns on its national office.

Tauranga resident Betty Napier, 88, died just over a year ago but stipulated $1 million she had left to the SPCA be spent on animals in the western Bay of Plenty.

It was the largest SPCA bequest in the country. Most of the money was handed over to the national office of the SPCA last October but no decision has been made on what to spend the money on and none of the money has been distributed.

The Tauranga branch has criticised the national office for the delay and before Christmas Tauranga chairman Tony Marshall was reported to have said the branch might have to put some animals down because it had received none of the bequest and was short of food.

However, SPCA national chief executive Robyn McDonald said Tauranga had $700,000 in the bank and donations had increased since the bequest was announced.

She said there was no doubt the bequest would be spent in the western Bay of Plenty in accordance with Mrs Napier's wishes. Tauranga and Waihi had been asked four times for ideas on how the money should be spent.

The national body had the power to shut the Tauranga branch but that would not happen because it wanted to work with the branch and not fight with it. However, it had been told very strongly to stay out of the public arena.

She said the national body was determined the money would be spent on an enduring project to protect animals and their welfare and not frittered away on administration or running costs. The Waihi and Tauranga branches were part of a steering committee that would look at the proposals.

She said a pilot de-sexing caravan offering a service to poor families would be in Tauranga soon but it was funded by the national office and not the bequest.

"They are having a really big hissy about it because we didn't ask them. We did tell them."

She said the caravan would stay in the Bay of Plenty as long as it was needed.

- NZPA