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PUPPY LOVE: Whangarei SPCA officer Jacqui Howe with the puppy found tied up in a bag and left to die in a bin.
PICTURE / JOHN STONE

Stuffed in a plastic bag and dumped ... Do we call that puppy love?

Reprinted with permission by the Northern Advocate

by Rhiannon Horrell

A mother strolling through an Onerahi park was horrified to find a puppy tied in a plastic bag and left to die in a bin.

The woman made the disturbing discovery yesterday afternoon when she heard noises from the rubbish bin. She rescued the puppy - thought to be a three- or four-week-old pitbull-boxer cross - and phoned SPCA.

Whangarei SPCA manager Francine Shields was outraged. ``It's an offence, it's inhumane, it's extremely cruel,'' she said.

The puppy would have to be put down as it had no chance of developing properly after being separated from its mother and taken off milk so early.

It was thought to be part of an abandoned litter, with four similar puppies also found yesterday at Onerahi lookout. Miss Shields urged people who could not cope with animals to contact the SPCA.

If homes could not be found they could be put down quickly and painlessly, whereas death by suffocation or starvation was slow and painful.

The maximum penalty for abandoning an animal is a fine of $25,000 and six months' jail - or $50,000 and three years' jail if it is left to die.