KEY POINTS:
Increasingly strapped for cash and low on volunteers, SPCA shelters are having to put down healthy kittens and puppies they can not find homes for.
The organisation put down 29,484 of the 59,654 animals they received in 2006, SPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger told NZPA. About five per cent of them were healthy.
"We don't just indiscriminately euthanase animals, we keep them if we possibly can," Ms Kippenberger said.
"However, when we produce too many animals to be rehomed, and we can't find people to home them, then we can't hold them indefinitely."
SPCA protocols around euthanasia dictate that generally any sick animal, or any animal deemed a threat to children or other animals, has less chance of survival than the rest.
Ms Kippenberger said most branches had a policy of providing board for animals for as long as it took to find a home for them, but it was ultimately dependant on the ability of the SPCA to care for them.
"What most shelters try to do is to offset that (euthanasia) by holding as many animals as they possibly can and then be really active about rehoming them.
"We hold animals for seven days and then we basically make a decision."
Ms Kippenberger said euthanasia was a very stressful and emotive issue for the SPCA, and they were well aware the practice could deter potential volunteers.
"It is a cruel irony that the people that love animals enough to volunteer to work for them must witness this sad waste of lives."
To reduce the high numbers of animals being put down, and prevent the potential closure of shelters, the SPCA needed more money to provide care for the vast number of animals being brought in.
The Gisborne branch was most recently hit by a chronic lack of resources and was in danger of closing.
Contributing to the problem at the branch, volunteer numbers have dropped from about 35 to fewer than 15 in the last year.
Ms Kippenberger said Gisborne's situation was not a one-off, and the same problem was apparent throughout the country.
"The reality is if the community don't support the service it languishes. You've got to have a will within the community to have that as a service."
All around the country were examples of shelters that had come within a hair's breadth of closing and were saved by a supportive community , Ms Kippenberger said.
Rotorua and Hamilton recently came close to closing but got past crisis point when their communities got behind them.
The SPCA receives no government funding and relies on public donations to meet costs.
"We are constantly strapped for cash wherever the SPCA is because there are simply too many animals. Many people if they lose an animal they'll just replace it with another, or people move house and just leave the animal behind."
A key solution to the problem was desexing animals, Ms Kippenberger said.
"That is the ultimate way we can stop this from happening, we need to reduce the number of animals that are in New Zealand, we need to reduce it down to a manageable level so we can rehome rather than euthanase."
The SPCA has a nationwide desexing programme, which includes a mobile clinic offering free desexing to animals of low income families. Over the past two years the clinic alone had desexed more than 5000 animals.
In addition to veterinarian and general care of the animals, the organisation faces other expenses.
One of the more costly areas is dealing with animal welfare call-outs, as well as the potential court cases that follow.
In 2006, the SPCA received 11,520 complaints requiring personnel to visit the property, through which 127 charges were laid.
As each charge costs about $200 and legal representation was paid for by the SPCA, Ms Kippenberger said the decision to take someone to court was never made lightly.
The SPCA had put a funding bid before government, Ms Kippenberger said, however, despite the fact the bid was "very modest", she was not confident they would get the money.
Minister for Agriculture Jim Anderton told NZPA if the SPCA identified a need for further funding in particular areas, the Government would be prepared to consider that.
In the past, he said, direct government funding for the SPCA had been seen as a risk, with the suggestion that it might reduce the level of public support.
"We are acutely aware of the current financial constraints on the SPCA and are continuing discussions with them on how the government may be able to assist," Mr Anderton said.
Ms Kippenberger said as 25 per cent of the work being done by the SPCA was on farms she felt they had a right to some government funding.
"That's work we're doing that is supporting the economy of New Zealand. It's a little bit different, cats and dogs are kind of an optional extra, but the (farm) animals in this country actually support our economy and if they're not being cared for then that reflects on our economic outlook."
In addition to that, Ms Kippenberger said, the SPCA's work dramatically decreased police call outs for animal welfare.
- NZPA
