ANIMAL HOME

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30880, 13 October 1965, Page 20

ANIMAL HOME

“Unsuitable” Buildings

“No effort has been made to have any of the buildings habitable for the influx of animals expected from now on,” said Mr A. Bullivant, president of the Canterbury Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, at the annual meeting last evening. He was referring to conditions at the society’s animal home at Sockburn.

“This is a problem that has to be faced by the incoming council, and should be the first item to be decided. The buildings generally are completely unsuitable. They all leak, and are very unhealthy for housing animals. “Every dog kennel leaks, and the concrete yards are unsuitable for dog runs. No private dog owner would allow his dog to live under such conditions. The general layout of the buildings is poor, and if the home is to be retained on the present site, a complete remodelling is necessary.”

Mr Bullivant said he had visited the home in all sorts of weather and had always been depressed by the conditions. He had always been opposed to the home being used as a boarding home, both because of the fact that it would be competing with commercial boarding kennels and catteries and because bf the possibility of stray animals taking disease into the home.

Other speakers complained of dampness in the catteries and one called the cat isolation block the “black hole of Calcutta.” Asked whether he was satisfied with the state of the buildings, Mr E. L. May, chairman of the outgoing council, said that no-one accepted them as the acme of animal housing, but they were the buildings the society had and were being operated as efficiently as possible.