SPCA appalled by animal cruelty

The Westport SPCA is appalled a rabbit and a guinea pig were removed from their cage at a Westport property and decapitated recently.

Westport SPCA secretary Robyn Nahr said the SPCA was horrified to hear that someone had decapitated the animals.

She appealed to anyone with information regarding the sadistic act to come forward.

"This has been reported to the police as well."

That wasn't the only act of animal cruelty to happen in Westport lately, she said.

Over the past week, a whitebaiter had seen three dead cats floating down the Buller River on three separate occasions. He managed to grab two of them, one which was in a plastic bag, she said.

The third cat he couldn't reach.

"We don't know if the one in the bag was dead when it was put in [the river]." She hoped for the cat's sake it was.

She encouraged people not to abandon their animals if they were no longer able to care for them.

"We will try to help you find new homes for them and come to us for help to desex."

The SPCA had also experienced a spike in the number of complaints about dogs being tied up all day.

It was nearly summer time, and the holiday season, so it was timely to remember that dogs needed sufficient exercise, water and shelter from the sun.

"Please don't leave your dogs tied up all day, they are intelligent creatures and it's just cruel to leave them with no attention."

Owners leaving dogs in cages for long periods of time was also a sad reality, one the SPCA had received complaints about in Westport, she said.

In one case, the cages were small and made of tin, which made them hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

"We continually get complaints about this particular property.

"We question why do you have a dog if you don't want to interact with it?"

Despite the recent spate of animal cruelty, the SPCA was doing well, she said.

It had re-homed a number of 'hard to re-home' cats that had been at the shelter for some time, and was preparing for the holiday rush.

The number of stray and abandoned cats and kittens being brought to the shelter often increased around Christmas time, but so did the number of people wanting to adopt.

She encouraged people to start making arrangements for their animals if they were going away over the holiday period. The Westport SPCA offered boarding for cats, she said.

By Aimee van der Weyden