Puppies found in Waikato in box dumped on a roadside

The 11 puppies are being held at the SPCA Waikato centre. SPCA's nationwide campaign with 25 per cent discount on all adoptions runs till this Sunday.

Almost a dozen puppies were dumped on a roadside in Waikato last week.

The SPCA Hamilton responded to a welfare call in Huntly from a public member, who found 11 one-week-old puppies cuddled up closely together in a box left on the side of a road.

Since the puppies were at a newborn age, they would have died within 12 hours of being left without appropriate care, if the member of the public hadn’t reacted promptly.

The puppies are currently residing at the Hamilton centre, which urges pet owners to desex their pets to prevent unwanted litters.

Hamilton’s SPCA centre manager Kyla Robb, told Waikato Herald all puppies were doing well and getting prepared for adoption once they turn 8 weeks old. The puppies are 3 weeks old now.

“They have great body weight and clearly had been well cared for by a mumma dog until they were dumped,” Robb said.

Eleven puppies were dumped in a box on a roadside in Huntly, Waikato. Photo / SPCA

“[They couldn’t have been on the roadside very long] as they’re neonates - they would have died within 12 hours of being dumped.”

They need around-the-clock bottle feeding, age-appropriate enrichment and socialisation.

Since being taken in by the centre, the puppies have been drinking lots of milk, and will have another health check, their first vaccinations, transition on to solid food and be microchipped before they’re ready for adoption.

The Hamilton SPCA currently has 290 animals in its care, over 80 of them are ready for their fur-ever homes, so Robb said desexing and adoptions were key to ease the pressure on the team.

“We need adoptions to make room for more animals to be able to come in and desexing to prevent the number of unwanted litters like the puppies that were dumped,” she said.

“Our resources are stretched to the max and desexing will greatly reduce animal numbers in the community.”

SPCA is currently running a nationwide campaign with 25 per cent discount on all adoptions. The campaign is running until Sunday, April 28. Visit the SPCA website for more information here.

Malisha Kumar is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined the Waikato Herald in 2023 after working for Radio 1XX in Whakatāne.

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