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The SPCA is offering overseas trips, shopping vouchers and trophies to animal inspectors who prosecute the most cases of animal abuse.
A new scheme rewarding those in the Auckland office who investigate breaches of the Animal Welfare Act has been piloted, with the first winners announced last week.
Inspector Victoria Border was crowned "prosecutor of the year" after successfully bringing charges against 14 animal owners. She will get $500 in Westfield shopping vouchers, a trip to a conference in Australia and a perspex award bearing her new title.
Auckland's acting general manager, David Lloyd-Barker, told the Herald on Sunday he did not want the public to think the SPCA "was looking for trouble", adding that "strict guidelines are in place to ensure we don't have bad prosecutions". The attitude of the SPCA had changed since June 2005, he said, and there was now zero tolerance for acts of animal cruelty.
Because of this fresh approach, prosecutions had increased by 307 per cent on the same time last year in the Auckland region, the SPCA said.
The society's Auckland chief executive, Bob Kerridge, said he supported the rewards scheme and confirmed there were plans to roll the system out into other departments of the SPCA. "The inspectors go out there on a daily basis not knowing what they are going to come across - they are often threatened, and they need some reward," Kerridge said.
The Herald on Sunday has learned problems have dogged SPCA's Auckland branch in recent years, with inspectors giving warnings when prosecutions should have arisen. That is believed to be behind the prize idea.
One man who is not happy with the regime is Martin Lovatt, father of 18-year-old Jessica, who was charged by the SPCA in January after she left her dog Toby in the car while she drank coffee at a Blockhouse Bay cafe. The court process cost the Lovatt family $15,000. Martin Lovatt said the authority had become heavy-handed. "We didn't want to duck the consequences but they wouldn't talk, they just wanted to prosecute."
