Peacock issue unsolved
It has been my pleasure to come to know a man called Bob Smith. We share a love of birds and I've gone to him for advice on numerous occasions.
My grandchildren enjoy visiting the aviary and have been spoilt with a trip out the back to see birds nesting and getting a peacock feather.
Bob has looked after the Gore aviary for 27 years. Birds are his passion and he devotes himself to keeping them healthy. He is well respected among the bird community and has a great knowledge of many different species.
I've had experience with peacocks running free near Gore. We all like to think of them enjoying their freedom and living their best life.
The reality is they are killed on the roads, their young are slaughtered by predators and they struggle for food in the winter months. They can fly over deer fences and upset people by roosting in their sheds and pooping everywhere.
Along comes a lady from Invercargill with her little tick sheet. She stands outside the Gore aviary and decides she is not happy with the way the peacocks are housed. She complains to the council and suddenly the peacocks have to go. The council stress that the peacocks will go to a good home, but Bob is just told to get rid of them.
They could easily have enlarged the peacock enclosure and had actually measured it out, but choose to do nothing. The vets thought the enclosure should be bigger, but acknowledged the birds were not showing any sign of stress.
Bob has had the peacocks for 12 years and the male has known no other life.
The cages are kept spotless, the birds are fed greens each day from Bob's own garden and they are well looked after.
The council has undermined and completely disrespected a good man who knows far more than they do about looking after birds.
REPLY — The Gore District Council has worked closely with Bob over the years, and has greatly valued his support with the aviary.
The physical structure of the aviary has changed over the years, with the location of different birds being moved around and enclosure sizes changing.
With the peacocks, we have received a number of concerns, raised by various people, over many years and the SPCA became involved in 2024 and highlighted that the peacock enclosure was not big enough for a bird of that size. It was not possible to enlarge the enclosure to a suitable size, due to the constraints created by nearby protected trees, without significant cost, and/or removing other birds housed in the aviary.
The SPCA has the authority under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 to enforce minimum standards for the care and treatment of animals, and as such, Gore District Council was required to act.
After consulting with a vet, rehoming them was the best option for the peacocks.
We explored possibilities for re-homing the peacocks, but ultimately, once it became clear the peacocks could not stay in their enclosure for their own wellbeing, we left the decision on their future home up to Bob, who has looked after them for many years.
— Gore District Council parks and recreation manager Keith McRobie
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Campaign to improve aviary continues
A Southland woman, whose tireless campaigning to the Gore District Council resulted in the rehoming of peafowl, is still unhappy with the conditions of the town's aviary. Nikki Broad said it took 18 months of letter-writing to the council to get Gore aviary's popular peacock and peahen re-homed last April. Now, council members were again ignoring her pleas to add greenery to the remaining birds' "sunless and barren" enclosures, she said. A couple of months ago, the council said in a statement numerous complaints led to a veterinarian's assessment of the distinctive birds' 1.5sq m enclosure, which found it was too small, needing more natural light and green grass. Last week, Ms Broad launched a "Give Them Green" campaign on social media, asking for permanent plantings, leafy branches, plants in containers and ground cover for the remaining animals. "Birds need greenery, it's good for their health," she said. In response to her latest campaign, council parks and recreation manager Keith McRobie said it was supporting the birds' caretaker Bob Smith, who had looked after the aviary for 27 years. To support the caretaker and owner of the birds, it was providing fruit and vegetables for the creatures alongside their usual feed, and had offered green branches as natural perches. Ms Broad discovered the aviary conditions were not to her liking when visiting Gore for the 2023 Rhododendron Festival and had been in communication with councillors to have it improved ever since. The aviary itself needed renovation, but she did not see that happening due to the financial constraints of the district council and the wider world, Ms Broad said. Communications with Gore District Mayor Ben Bell informed her that upgrades to the aviary were part of the council's long-term plan but, again, she did not see that happening any time soon. "It does say 'budget allowing', and the way the world is going we're not looking at anything short of a miracle for money for a new aviary." Her focus instead was on adding a constant supply of green to improve the birds' quality of life. While the Queen's Park aviary had been improved over 10 years ago and was now up to standard, the Oamaru aviary had been closed due to similar problems, she said. Mr Smith said he had re-homed the peafowl but did not want to disclose details of their location as he did not want the birds to receive the unwanted attention he was already receiving. He declined to comment further. Ms Broad hoped the campaign would reach those who felt similarly about the Gore aviary, and with 200 of those people's signatures on a petition, she would be able to speak at a Gore District Council meeting about the cause. "And in that one there, I'll be quite plain about this lack of reply to correspondence," she said.
RNZ News
04-06-2025
- RNZ News
Auckland Council issuing free vouchers for de-sexing services to combat roaming dogs
Photo: Unsplash / Michael Anfang Auckland Council has started issuing vouchers for free dog de-sexing services to deal with what it calls a roaming dog crisis in the city. Between January and 22 May 2025, the council said it received 6197 reports of roaming dogs and impounded 2460. Auckland Council Animal Management manager Elly Waitoa said the issue was growing faster than they could keep up with. "We are seeing far too many Auckland dog owners failing to desex or even register their dogs. The result is more roaming dogs, more attacks, and more pressure on already stretched animal services." As part of a pilot programme in collaboration with the SPCA, desexing vouchers were being issued by animal management officers and shelter staff directly to the public via email. "They'll be able to offer vouchers to people who experience financial hardship, their dog might have had multiple pregnancies, unwanted litters, or who clearly need support with getting their dogs de-sexed," Waitoa said. The vouchers would be redeemable at 17 participating vets. She said they were initially targeting 10 priority suburbs, mostly in South and West Auckland, with the free vouchers. "We're focusing on high-risk areas for dog attacks and communities that are most at risk of being harmed or injured by a dog that is roaming or comes out and attacks." She said 3000 dog attacks on people and animals were reported to the council in 2024. She said the council recognised that de-sexing a dog isn't cheap, and she had seen prices range from $180 to $750. They aimed to de-sex aims at least 445 dogs across Manurewa, Papakura, Ōtara, Papatoetoe, Māngere, Henderson, Massey, Pukekohe, Māngere East, and Mount Wellington. People were currently not able to apply for the vouchers. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Spinoff
03-06-2025
- The Spinoff
We need to stop talking about cats and actually do something
Right now, the Department of Conservation is asking for feedback on the Predator Free 2050 strategy. The biggest question: should feral cats be added alongside rats, ferrets, stoats, weasels and possums? Allison Hess argues it's a no-brainer. Gareth Morgan kicked things off with his infamous Cats to Go campaign in 2013. He said things people didn't want to hear. Cats, he said, were 'serial killers' and 'nature's only sadists'. People absolutely lost the plot. He was immediately labelled a radical, a cat-hating Bond villain. When the Predator Free 2050 target species were chosen in 2016, feral cats were off the list, due to the fears of public backlash. The public wasn't ready, and the SPCA opposed it at the time. But a decade on, Morgan's once spicy take is looking… less radical. His campaign was inspired by the destruction cats were causing on Rakiura (Stewart Island) wildlife. Feral cats were the reason kākāpō were urgently translocated off the island in the 80s. It has been a constant battle to keep their numbers in check to protect the remaining wildlife on the island. Today the pukunui (southern NZ dotterel) is close to the brink, with only 105 birds remaining. The cat conversation Morgan dragged hissing and clawing into the public arena never went away. Journalists have nudged it along, sitting the public down for 'the talk' periodically. To name just a few stories, there have been Are there too many cats in NZ? (Stuff, 2016); Our love affair with cats (NZ Geographic, 2021); We need to talk about cats and wildlife (The Spinoff, 2022); We need to talk about cats (Newsroom, 2022) and Paddy Gower Has Issues: Feral cats are killing native birds, bats and even dolphins – so why are Kiwis so mad when we cull them? (Stuff, 2023). We've read story after story: cats eating 28 lizards in one go, destroying 87 black-fronted tern nests and wiping out robin populations. Today, the mood has shifted, and the conversation has matured. It's not cat lovers vs cat haters. The public has had a decade to digest what was once too controversial. Even the SPCA has changed its tune, admitting emotions clouded its decision-making back then, and it now supports the humane killing of feral cats. In a 2023 leaders' debate, Luxon and Hipkins both said feral cats should be included in the Predator Free 2050 strategy. And public opinion? A 2024 survey commissioned by the Predator Free NZ Trust found that 64% of New Zealanders thought we should actively reduce feral cat populations on public conservation land. Nearly 60% supported national legislation for microchipping and desexing of pet cats. Cats are a legal grey zone While all cats are hunters, companion cats are beloved members of households. Feral cats, on the other hand, live entirely independently of humans, with no home, no vet, no food bowl. They hunt to survive and breed freely. They're everywhere, from farmland to bush, even crossing the Southern Alps. They're here because we haven't had proper rules to prevent their existence in the first place. After the Cats to Go dustup settled down, it actually became clear that the interests of wildlife and cat welfare weren't so far apart. In a real enemies-to-lovers story line, the SPCA, Vets Association, Morgan Foundation and Companion Animals NZ shacked up to work together, forming the National Cat Management Group. The Predator Free NZ Trust later joined. But their attempts to introduce basic rules like nationwide desexing, registration and microchipping of pet cats have been batted away for years. These basics would help reduce kitten dumping, help return lost pets and slow the growth of stray and feral colonies, which are booming (in New Zealand there are an estimated 2.4 million feral cats, compared to 1.2 million pet cats). Unlike dogs, there is no law governing cat ownership and control. There is a hodgepodge of council bylaws, but cats have free rein of the country, are allowed to wander onto other people's property, and their owners aren't responsible for any damage they cause. The cross-sector group got close to something happening in 2023 when the environment select committee recommended creating a law. The current government said, 'Nah, not a priority.' So here we are again But now there's another opening to do something about cats. The Department of Conservation is asking if feral cats should be added to the Predator Free 2050 target species list. Feral cats are being controlled, but it's piecemeal. There's no national standard, no shared funding, no clear guidelines, limited research and poor outcomes for both cats and wildlife. When nothing happens at a national level, people take matters into their own hands, like the farmers in Canterbury who made international headlines with their feral cat culling competition. Leaving feral cats off the list undermines the whole Predator Free 2050 goal. If we leave out feral cats, we ignore one of the deadliest predators, and their control remains disjointed. Adding them to the list means setting national standards, investing in research and ensuring their removal is more humane, coordinated and effective. Feral cats shouldn't remain in the too-hard basket. We've had the conversation; it's time to do something with it.
