Dog therapy service open to taking on St John volunteers
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RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Needy pet owners get helping paw
The Petstock Foundation and the NZ Food Network are launching Big Hearts Project 2025. Photo: Fiona Goodall Many people in need are going without food to feed their pets, according to the manager of a Taranaki foodbank. Nearly two-thirds of New Zealand households own a pet and, for households with children, that number is 71 percent. New Plymouth Community Foodbank manager Sharon Wills has seen evidence of people putting their pets' needs before themselves all the time. "It's every day someone will say, 'Look, I've got a cat or I've got at dog, and I need to make sure I feed them,' and people are really concerned. People love their animals." Wills had no qualms about helping people struggling to feed pets. "People say we shouldn't be helping people who've got animals and they need to be getting rid of them, but you know, if you've had your cat or your dog for 10 years, eight years, they're part of your family." Wills said the foodbank did not buy or collect pet food specifically, but if it had some, it gave it out to people who asked for it. The alternative was people would tend to their animals and not themselves. Wills said vet bills were another worry that could also tip people over the edge, forcing them to seek help from foodbanks. All funds raised will be used to purchase Petstock's own-brand pet food (Tilly, Billie's Bowl, Glow), which will be donated directly to Food Network centres nationwide. Photo: Fiona Goodall A recent qualitative study - based on interviews with 23 women and five men and published in the Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work Association journal, found that people experiencing poverty went without food to provide for pets in their care. Study author and doctoral student Lesley Pitt said pets provided the people in the study with a sense of security and companionship. "The latter part was particularly important, as it reduced social isolation," she wrote. "When participants had companion animals, they prioritised food for their animals over food for themselves and went without other material goods to care for the needs of their companion animals." WOrkers stock boxes of food for hungry pets. Photo: Fiona Goodall Pitt said the implication of her study for social workers was that they needed to be conscious of the role pets played in the lives of people living in poverty. During August, the Petstock Foundation will partner with the New Zealand Food Network to raise $100,000 across New Zealand and Australia to help struggling households feed their pets. According to the Food Network, from July to December 2024, its partner food hubs reported that the top reasons Kiwis sought support were: NZ Food Network chief executive Gavin Findlay said people going without to provide for pets was something its members saw on the front-lines of food insecurity all the time. He was grateful for the Petstock Foundation initiative. "As more families struggle to put food on the table, we welcome this opportunity to alleviate this burden on both the pets and their owners. "We know that families on stretched budgets often face the hard choice of feeding themselves or feeding their pets. With the Petstock Foundation's support, we can help take away that impossible decision, so no family member or pet goes hungry." Throughout August, the Petstock Foundation and the NZ Food Network (and Foodbank AU) will work to raise $100,000 across Australia and New Zealand. All funds raised will be used to purchase Petstock's own-brand pet food (Tilly, Billie's Bowl, Glow), which will be donated directly to Food Network centres nationwide - helping to keep pets fed and families together during tough times. Photo: Fiona Goodall Petstock Foundation's Naomi Mancktelow said the Big Hearts Project aimed to empower individuals and families struggling to feed their pets. "We know that people who experience hardship also tend to experience social isolation," she said. "We also know that having a pet companion can alleviate this." Mancktelow invited people to donate $2 to the Petstock Foundation, via its website. "This small donation will make a big difference. You will not just fill a bowl - you are supporting the emotional wellbeing for families under pressure, keeping pets in loving homes where they belong, and empowering a better future for pets and people." Sharon Wills. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin Meanwhile, Wills welcomed the fundraising drive. "It is amazing," she said. "It just takes the pressure off us. "We like to ask people, 'What do they need?' They'll say, 'Fruit and vege, meat and pet food. I've got a cat, I've got a dog etc,' so we'll just try and help them with those needs." Will said demand for the foodbank service was still huge. "To the end of July this year, we'd given out 2880 food parcels and that had helped feed more than 7000 people. At the end of last year, we'd given out given out 5245 food parcels and fed just under 15,000 people, so we'll definitely match those numbers this year." How Kiwis can support: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Country Life: Lowering costs and enriching the soil - one farmer's regenerative journey
Stephen Newman will make 16 tonnes of compost this season for use on his 10-hectare farm. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round Imagine soil like a sponge, crawling with worms, beetles dragging dung down from the surface and a riot of vegetation on top. It's not everyone's idea of paradise, but it's like heaven for Kaukapakapa farmer Stephen Newman. Newman, a founder of the Kaipara Regenerative Farming Group and a member of farmer-led network Quorum Sense, told Country Life he used to farm very conventionally, until "the penny dropped" a few years ago, when he watched a programme about regenerative farming. Since then, he has experimented with different regenerative methods on his 10-hectare block north of Auckland city. Follow Country Life on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , iHeart or wherever you get your podcasts. Trials included sowing cover crops, introducing stock for a short period of time to feed on long cover, rearing dung beetles to help transfer the nutrients in animal faeces further down the layers of soil and composting. He started the Kaipara Regenerative Farming Group about three years ago to help farmers improve soil health, enrich biodiversity, increase water retention, and reduce reliance on fertilisers and pesticides. "Everything we do with the regenerative approach is all about soil biology, creating that life in the ground." Stephen Newman experiments with several ways of composting. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round He said more farming discussion groups had started to spring up in the region, meeting to discuss holistic grazing methods and how to make farms more resilient in the face of increasingly intense weather. "We're also looking at employing someone, possibly two days a week, to go around the district and convert conventional farmers to regen farming... to create that sponge in the soil to absorb the water, to stop instant flooding, to stop the runoff down to the creek and we're doing it here." His paddocks have fared fine during dry periods too, he said. "There were cracks through the soil and I threw bucket loads of compost on, and it's just full of life, insects and everything. It was incredible." He pointed to a paddock with a budding crop of 16 species, which would be grazed soon by his small beef herd. Newman also wanted to make small-block farming a profitable venture, so landowners were not forced to go off-farm to work. Lowering costs by letting nature do its thing all helped. A "converted" farmer may not even be interested in carbon drawdown or climate change, but loved the result for the bottom line, he said. "What we're doing is showing them how to use stock density to create fertility and diversity. You're doing a quick impact, pounding the soil. "The biology kicks into life and, all of a sudden, it repairs the paddock really quickly as well, so you're not going down to mud, so you're leaving a carpet, a layer that's pushed down, so you've still got length in the grass or the species. "If you keep cover over your soil, not grazing down to bare minimum, one, you're keeping the roots down deep. Two, you're keeping cover of the soil, so the temperature doesn't rise and, three, the soil biology retains the moisture in the soil." Newman is also part of the City to Farm project, and takes regular deliveries of fermented food scraps from schools, a rest home and cafes, which he integrates with other organic matter to make compost for spreading on his paddocks - 16 tonnes this season. Pipes feed air into layers of organic matter to speed up composting. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round He has trialled several composting methods intent on saving time and labour, which you can hear more about on the Country Life podcast . "What I'm doing costs hardly anything, so if this mucks up, it doesn't actually muck anything else up. "It doesn't make anything go backwards and the inputs are low. You can do as little as you like. "You could just use cattle and holistic grazing management. It depends on what you want to achieve and, you know, what are you doing? "What's your context? What are you growing?" Learn more: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Orana Wildlife Park upgrade animal welfare, workplace culture after damning report
Giraffes at Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park. Photo: RNZ / Adam Burns A Christchurch zoo found to have substandard animal welfare procedures has work to do to restore its damaged reputation, leaders say. After a six-month pause, Orana Wildlife Park will resume taking new animals, following a review prompted by whistleblowers' animal welfare concerns and allegations of a toxic culture. The Zoo and Aquarium Association Australasia (ZAA) commissioned an independent investigation into the allegations of poor animal welfare aired on 1News, while the Orana Wildlife Trust Board asked agency Culture by Design to assess the park's workplace culture. The final report released in December suggested improvements to animal welfare processes, organisational systems, health and safety, asset management and workplace culture. Earlier this week, park management confirmed it had met all the ZAA requirements and the pause on incoming animal transfers had been lifted. On Friday, Orana Wildlife Trust Board co-chairperson Emeritus Professor Ken Hughey admitted people's confidence in the park had taken a hit. "There's no doubt that the controversies that arose have created uncertainty and angst amongst the community," he said. "We believe we've turned the corner visually and in the way that we approach visitors, and in the things that they can see around the park. Orana Wildlife Trust Board co-chairperson Emeritus Professor Ken Hughey admitted people's confidence in the park had taken a hit. Photo: RNZ / Adam Burns "We're really confident that we have turned that corner." Visitor numbers dropped last year, but the park was confident they would return. Hughey said the park and its procedures were dramatically different to a year ago. "We're doing all the work necessary to keep our staff and our animals in a happy place, which is where we should be." Orana leaders said they were implementing a five-year plan called 'Future Focused', aimed at "strengthening animal welfare practices, enhancing our organisational culture and ensuring long-term sustainability". Orana Wildlife Trust Board co-chairperson Emeritus Professor Ken Hughey and Orana chief executive Rachel Haydon. Photo: RNZ / Adam Burns The wildlife attraction's books have also faced strain, prompting a request of up to $1.5 million in annual public funding. Last November, former chief executive Lynn Anderson resigned after 28 years leading the zoo. Successor Rachel Haydon was appointed in February. "We asked our new CE to do some pretty significant thinking about how we manage our budgets going forward," Hughey said. "We have reserves and we are dipping into our reserves to manage our way forward." Haydon said she felt "communication" and "trust-building" were some of the positive changes she had tried to introduce during the first few months of her tenure. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
