KEY POINTS:
Tauranga's SPCA is investigating an average of more than seven complaints a week of animal abuse or neglect in the Western Bay of Plenty.
It is also taking in more than 1700 unwanted pets a year.
In the first three months of this year, it has investigated 93 complaints of abuse and neglect and taken in 615 animals.
Calls have included a teenager swinging a puppy around his head by the dog's lead and children stoning a duck to death.
In one of the worst incidents last year, a man beat his dog, then chased it around his backyard with a shovel. The dog was removed.
Dogs are frequently left tied to clothes lines with no water, food or shelter while their owners go away on holiday or shift house, leaving them behind altogether.
Animals are also often left untreated for illnesses, injuries and fleas.
One dog had broken its leg and when SPCA staff returned to check on it six weeks later, the owner still had done nothing about the injury.
The manager of the Tauranga branch of the SPCA, Matt Franklin, said many people saw having a pet as a right, not a privilege, and treated animals accordingly.
Often, however, they were the first to receive abuse from those who were meant to be their protectors.
This week, former All Black and Dancing With The Stars champion Norm Hewitt, who is the face of the "One of the Family" campaign for the SPCA, has reminded pupils at three western Bay of Plenty intermediate schools how to treat animals.
He hopes that encouraging children to love animals will teach them to be kind to their fellow humans as well.
Research has shown those who abuse animals are likely to commit family violence or other violent acts and Hewitt has been open about his own violent childhood, using his experiences to speak out about animal cruelty.
After visiting Tauranga and Te Puke Intermediates, he called in on Mt Maunganui Intermediate, where students watched a video of photographs of happy animals morph into sad and neglected animals set to Bryan Adams' hit Everything I Do, I Do It For You.
Hewitt joined the campaign after reading research linking children's cruelty to animals with serious violent offending later on. "They could be our next generation of violent criminals."
He said that, interestingly, animals historically had protection laws before children did.
SPCA's national chief executive, Robyn Kippenberger, said many serious offenders began their careers with sadistic acts against animals.
"Moreover, abuse or neglect of animals is often a symptom of general family violence or of children mirroring the violent behaviour meted out to them."
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
