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New Zealand and the treatment of animals
New Zealand boasts one of the highest pet ownership
rates in the world with 76% of household owning a pet,
56% keep cats and 36% have pet dogs. So naturally animal
welfare is also an issue of some influence.
As a former English colony New Zealand was quick to
develop its own branch of the English animal protection
society, the SPCA. The SPCA has been active in New Zealand
since 1882 and is involved not only with the welfare
of domestic animals but also with wild animals, especially
wild birds.
The holiday season is a busy time for the Auckland Branch
of the SPCA's 'Birds Wings' project, a special program
tailored to looking after injured birds. Long time member
and volunteer worker Sylvia Durrant (70) has been an
active member of the Bird Wings for 12 years. A former
nurse, Sylvia now lives in her two bedroom house with
about 200 birds! From young penguin chicks found too
weak to fend for themselves at sea to moreporks hit
by cars, tuis, wood pigeons, swans, parrots and all
kinds of birds, chicks and adults, with all kinds of
injuries, Sylvia' s days are busy nursing them all back
to health and eventual release back into the wild.
The efforts of the SPCA volunteers are supported by
a variety of local initiatives, courier companies help
by delivering the injured birds in specially designed
boxes free of charge, the society raises funds through
donations and events such as BBQs and sausage sizzles
at local beaches.
The effort of such volunteers is an admirable service,
not just to the animals that they help save but to all
of us, by helping to lessen the harm we do the world
we live in.
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