So much goes on here at Wellington SPCA that it’s hard to keep up with all the action. We thought it might be useful to see a snapshot about what a typical day is like in our Newtown centre. Of course, this is only a few snippets, and so there’s lots more going on than just what’s covered here, but here’s some of our happenings.
7am: Staff begin arriving for the day.
8am: In the cat run, the caregivers are saying good morning to all the cats and kittens, making sure they’re all present and healthy. Soon our general animal care volunteers will come in to clean and refresh litter trays, provide food and water, and wash the runs down thoroughly.
Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are the centre’s surgery days, so clients who have made appointments start dropping off their animals for desexing. Desexing your pet is the kindest thing you can do – it saves unwanted litters being born. We always encourage all animal owners to get their pets desexed.
8.30am: Renee in our fundraising team starts writing up a case study on an animal we’ve helped, like China the dog, to include in an appeal.
“It’s always horrible reliving an abused animal’s backstory, but knowing that they get such amazing outcomes through our work, with the support of the public, makes it worthwhile,” says Renee.
9am: The inspectors are often trying to catch up on paperwork from visits they’d made the day before. Sometimes however they have already started their new visits.
Inspectors respond to allegations of animal cruelty and neglect and have the legal power to remove animals from their owners. Working on follow-up to complaint cases involves lots of phone calls, preparing prosecution files, liaising with vet staff, laying information with the court and serving summons on offenders. The inspectors also are constantly pushing the desexing message and often work with members of the community to get animals desexed.
The first vet round of the day is carried out by an an animal caregiver and a vet, checking every animal in the centre. Every animal in a cage is looked at by the vet, while the puppies and cats in the cat run are in an open area, so they are pulled aside if there are any concerns. All staff and volunteers keep an eye on all the animals all day, and if there are any issues, they can be flagged at any time for extra attention from the vet.
9.30am: Our Humane Educator Jennifer Rizzi visits a local kindergarten. She teaches the children how to care for their animals, and talks to them about our work. Then they get to meet some of our very special Wellington SPCA pets.
“It’s really important that we start children off in life with a respect for animals, so that they will continue to care for them as they grow older,” says Jennifer.
10am: Staff try to have morning tea with volunteers occasionally, to get to know them better and learn about their strengths and skills. It’s an ideal time to answer questions about the work we do, and talk about ways we can get the best use out of the volunteers (and make sure that they’re enjoying their work too!).
When there’s quiet time, feline caregiver Rachel uploads profiles of animals to our adoption section on the website. As well as pictures and names and ages of the animals, we try to include as much information about them as we can – like whether they get on well with other cats or if they’d be better off in a home by themselves. As well as the official adoption profile, volunteers also make Facebook profiles for some of the animals that they’ve worked with the most, or who have been in our centres for too long, like Ginger Jo or Buffy and Puku, who we want to home together.
Rachel with Puku, one of our special cats looking for a new home
10:30am: Chrissy, one of our volunteers, comes in to help us out in the office. She gets all the super fun jobs, like filing, data entry and stuffing envelopes for mail campaigns.
“It’s not glamorous, but I do it because I love the puppies,” she laughs.
11am: In the cat run, while volunteers restock litter trays and finish up cleaning, caregivers administer any medications or treatments such as wormer, flea treatment and stitch removal.
11.30am: Inspectors receive yet another phone call about unwanted cats on a property.
The expectation often is that we’re here act as pest control for cats for people, but actually, we’re here for the welfare of the animal. If the animal is sick, injured, very young or at risk of any abuse, we’ll bring them in to the centre. However, if they’re perfectly healthy, we’ll go through a process to see if we can reunite them with their owners. If they’re wild and don’t have an owner, we’ll try to avoid bringing them in to the shelter as this causes undue stress and suffering. Working in with the community, making the animals safe, and using such options as TNR (Trap, neuter, return) whereby the animal will be trapped, neutered and returned back to the exact area where it came from.
These cats are not generally able to be rehomed, so this is the best outcome for them, and as they are desexed, it helps to stem the flow of unwanted animals. Unfortunately many of the people in the community don’t quite understand why we’re not keen to come and pick up a perfectly healthy animal.
12pm: Members of the public often come in during their lunchtimes to meet animals they might adopt. We try to get all the members of a household along so they can see if they and the animal will get along. Caregivers will talk to potential adopters about their lifestyle and home situation to make sure the new member of the family will fit right in.
12.30pm: The sound of senior inspector Ben’s voice fills our office as he sends out an email containing a link to his most recent appearance on Good Morning. We use the slots to talk about the work we do, and to push especially timely messages we want to get out into the public. As it’s Spring, right now we’re talking about what to do with baby birds.
1pm: Suzanne, our fundraising manager, meets with volunteers up in Kapiti to coordinate collectors for our annual Paws Appeal street collection. It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year, so it’s vital we get enough collectors onboard. If you can help us out by collecting on November 11 or 12, please email Suzanne!
We need your help collecting in our street appeal, but you don't have to wear a costume - unless you really want to!
3pm: Joanna, our Marketing and Communications Officer, is prowling around with her camera, looking to snap a picture for the Gratuitous Cute of the Day album on our Facebook site.
“We like to remind people about how many animals we have here who are looking for homes,” she says “and we’ve found this to be a particularly popular part of Facebook. It’s almost as if people like cute animals or something…”
She gets pictures of some of the puppy run volunteers giving the puppies a bath.
Ned gets a bath
3.30pm: Ben is able to close a file about some cattle a member of the public was concerned about, when he gets confirmation that they are being looked after and a feeding plan is in place.
“We encourage the public to report any potential welfare issues they might see, but it’s always nice to be able to wrap something up knowing that the animals in question are doing fine,” he says.
4pm: In the cat run, final checks for the day are done on all kitties, and a round of wet food for each cat to munch on throughout the night is put out.
Some more dog-walking volunteers come in, and Piglet and Marco Polo get excited knowing they’ll get some proper exercise. Dog walkers teach them to walk politely on a lead, to stop at curbs and sit quietly while traffic, people and other dogs pass by. This training makes it much easier to find homes for the dogs.
Scot's College students walking some of our dogs
4pm: The afternoon vet round is completed, all the animals have plans underway for treatment if needed, and one little pigeon is released after being very sick a mere 26 hours earlier.
4.30pm: The adoptions team of volunteers starts loading up a vehicle for an offsite adoption the next day. Signs have been placed around the area earlier in the week so that locals will know about the adoption, and it will be advertised on Facebook and Twitter as well. We run offsite adoptions for people who can’t make it out to our centres in Newtown and Wellington. Cats that go to offsite adoptions are coming from foster homes. They may have had diseases before (a “disease” can be as simple as a sneeze), but are all healthy now, and looking for new forever homes. Fosterers help us out with the process, as they are the ones who know the cats’ temperaments the best.
5pm: Jennifer welcomes a group of excited kids who are here for a birthday party. The office erupts with giggles when we hear one child ask “So are the bunnies going to massage us, or are we going to massage the bunnies?”. For the record, the kids massage the bunnies, although it would be tempting to let bunnies hop all over your back!
A happy bunny and massager.
6pm: Some of our more experienced volunteers arrive to take volunteer orientation for this fortnight. We run the orientations every two weeks to welcome potential new volunteers, and let them know what they’re in for. As well as a presentation, they also get a shelter tour, and some emergency and basic health and safety information. They get caught up on some of the details of working in the shelter, such as scratches from over-enthusiastic kittens, and the realities of poo.
6.30pm: Ritchie attends a callout to rescue some ducklings who have fallen down a stormwater drain.
7pm: With all the animals settled in for the night, the humans have all left the centre. One inspector will be on call and ready for any animal emergency. Tomorrow will bring lots more work, and we wouldn’t be able to do it without our volunteers and donators.
