Rotorua SPCA wins award | Rotorua News | Local News in Rotorua

Rotorua SPCA has been recognised for its efforts to rehabilitate animals with behavioural problems and adopt them out to new homes.

The charity was one of 12 centres presented with awards for their work in the 10 Saving Lives steps initiated last year by the Royal New Zealand SPCA.

The Saving Lives programme embraces the philosophy that every life is precious and is based on 10 simple steps.

The Rotorua branch, which is on Old Taupo Rd, focused on rehabilitating behavioural problems and treating medical problems with a view to rehome the 3100 animals it received last year.

Centre manager Nicola Martin said they tried to work on as many of the 10 steps as possible but knew that behavioural problems were an issue in rehoming animals.

Last year they increased their adoptions by 90 per cent and that was on top of an increase of 60 per cent on the animals it received. They are now working on another of the steps: committing to desexing animals.

"We're here to help animals and save lives," Ms Martin said.

"To get 20 animals in a day used to be odd but we're getting 40 to 50 a day sometimes. We were given a manual at last year's conference of ways to improve. We took on quite a number of things and gave it a go. We've increased our adoptions hugely but this was about making a difference to the animals in our centre."

The centre punches above its weight and not in a good way, Ms Martin said.

Auckland SPCA received 18,000 animals last year, six times more than Rotorua. This makes desexing of animals all the more critical.

"We're not six times smaller than Auckland," she said. "We're the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff and we don't want to be there any more. If we stop the kittens and puppies coming in we wouldn't have 3100 animals as we do every year. We're collecting between 10 and 30 animals from a household because they're not desexing. About 80 per cent of what comes in could have been prevented."

Last year the centre adopted out animals across the country.

Taupo SPCA was also celebrated for engaging with and harnessing the support of the community to help rehome animals through a promotional campaign. Awards were presented to each of the 12 centres recognised and they were given the opportunity to share their success stories and offer tips on how to be more successful.