KEY POINTS:
Animal welfare workers are distraught over the number of unwanted cats and dogs that have had to be put down over the holidays.
Bay of Islands SPCA manager and senior inspector Gail Boyd said it was the same every year, which meant the message about the need to desex pets was not getting through.
"You have animals that are having to be put to sleep that are not sick," she said.
"And you have young vets sitting on the floor crying. It has a really big impact on the people who are having to do the job."
Ms Boyd said SPCA personnel held their breath every December and waited for "the madness". The time of year also just happened to coincide with the breeding season for cats and with a proliferation of unwanted pups.
"We wait and anticipate and then find ourselves once again shocked by the volume of lives lost over this period," she said.
"In one week alone - in fact two days - 26 kittens were handed in along with eight adult cats.
"Eleven puppies, one adult dog and one cat had to be euthanised on Christmas Eve alone."
She said the experience in the Bay of Islands was the same at the 50 other SPCAs around the country. It might be the season to be jolly, but it was hard for SPCA personnel to be smiling, polite and patient while listening to stories about why animals were surplus to requirements, she said.
"On top of it all, we had an incident where a bitch and six puppies were thrown off a bridge at Taheke [north of Whangarei].
"Three of the puppies were swept to their death over a 20m waterfall.
"Two of the very young pups survived but, with nowhere to go and no mum, and suffering from exposure, they had to be put to sleep."
- NZPA
