Filthy Conditions At Spca

[Sue]

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The chief executive of Te Awamutu's SPCA has stepped down after the Waipa District Council found the premises in a squalid state and threatened to prosecute.

Volunteers spent much of last week cleaning out the dog-runs and other areas at the site on Bruce Berquist Dr after Dianne Gray was asked to stand down, pending an investigation by the Royal New Zealand Society for the Protection of Animals (RNZSPCA).

Mrs Gray said she could not comment because of the investigation but it is understood the condition of the premises was because of the large number of dogs held on site.

The Te Awamutu SPCA has a permit to house 20 dogs but, when council staff visited in March, 37 dogs were found.

In the past there have been up to 70 dogs found on the property and the branch has been repeatedly warned by the council to get the number of dogs down.

After the visit in March the council sent a letter which warned "the initiation of a prosecution would be a likely outcome" if the situation was not addressed immediately.

Environmental services team leader Karl Tutty noted in the letter that "the amount of faeces, the number of flies and the odour would constitute a nuisance".

He put this down to the number of dogs and the resulting limited amount of time they had outside.

"I certainly do not encounter these conditions at vets, or our own pounds where animals can be housed en masse," he wrote.

The letter sparked the RNZSPCA, the umbrella group of the country's SPCAs, to act and chief inspector Charles Cadwallader was sent to take control of the branch.

RNZSPCA chief executive Robyn Kippenberger said the premises were "filthy", with dogs housed in "urine-soaked" cages.

She said in the past the branch opened for three hours on a Sunday or by appointment but it would now open every day, even if only for a few hours, so that the dogs had more chances of being adopted.

"It could be a really nice SPCA but all we need to do is open the doors a little bit more," she said.

It is understood that other branches around the region took some of the extra dogs but some had to be put down. Mrs Kippenberger is urging people who can adopt a dog from the Te Awamutu SPCA to do so.

She said once the premises were cleaned up and the non-compliance issues addressed, operation of the branch would be handed back to the board of trustees.

Mrs Gray has been a member of the Te Awamutu SPCA since its inception and was a key member of the fundraising committee which raised funds to build the premises.