Top legal team comes free for SPCA

Anita Killeen with Charlie, an 8-week-old bull terrier-cross who is available for adoption from the SPCA. Photo / Supplied

Some of New Zealand's top lawyers have offered their services for no charge to help the SPCA in its campaign to win tougher penalties for animal abusers.

Twenty-one barristers, Queen's Counsel and law firm partners have gone on the list of lawyers to take animal welfare cases for the Auckland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Society inspectors usually prepare their own prosecutions, hiring costly legal help for defended hearings.

The society's executive director, Bob Kerridge, is delighted with what he calls "the most impressive line-up of prosecutors the country has seen".

"We have been lobbying for a long time to increase sentences. We do believe sentences passed down, particularly in some really bad cases, have been quite pitiful, given the ability under the act to be much more forceful."

He cited $500 fine for shooting a cat with a crossbow, inflicting fatal injuries, a $1000 fine and $2315 in reparation for killing a dog by throwing it from a tree, and a person banned from owning an animal for five years after a dog was found starved and barely able to walk.

Mr Kerridge said the problem was that offenders and possibly judges considered animal abuse less important than abusing humans.

"We see the murder of animals the same as the murder of people. We are also very concerned about the connection between animal abuse and human abuse."

The panel is the idea of Auckland SPCA board member Anita Killeen, who is also the chief prosecutor for the Serious Fraud Office.

She said one of the society's objectives was to achieve "greater deterrence and denunciation" of offenders prosecuted for the more serious cases of animal cruelty.

Panel members include Stuart Grieve QC, John Haigh QC, Rodney Harrison QC, Russell McVeagh partner Mike Heron, Kit Toogood QC and Harry Waalkens QC.

Mr Haigh - who cherishes his family's pet, 10-year-old Harry, a large, black poodle - said yesterday that many barristers and QCs did a significant amount of work without charging for it.

He believed setting up the SPCA list was a good move.

"I don't think New Zealand has a particularly good reputation for its care of animals."