Love for Long-stays campaign helps hundreds of animals find homes

Over the four-week campaign, a total of 183 long-stay animals were adopted, with a further 29 long-stay adoptions pending or on trial adoptions.

In total, 1,309 animals were adopted during the campaign, supported by more than 1.28 million visits to SPCA adoption pages.

“We have been overwhelmed with the support and positive feedback we’ve received regarding the campaign,” says Todd Westwood, SPCA’s Chief Executive Officer.

“Some of these long-stay animals were waiting many months, sometimes over a year to find a home. To have 183 get adopted and even more pending is just fantastic. We found that many of the adopters were already on the fence about bringing home their new family member - by removing the usual adoption fees and just requesting a donation instead. this seemed to just give them that extra nudge they needed to take that leap.”

Long-stay adoptions increased by 30.7% compared with the two weeks before the campaign began, rising from an average of 35 adoptions per week to almost 46 per week during the campaign.

There were a few stand-out adoptions for our teams during the campaign.

“Diego was a dog who had waited 145 days in our Kerikeri Centre,” Mr Westwood says. “He was overlooked for such a long time, the team was thrilled when his adopter ended up travelling all the way up from Rotorua to bring him home. She showed true commitment, which is exactly what Diego deserved.

The team at Petdirect, one of SPCA's major partners, were particularly moved by Diego's story and by Kairangi's commitment to giving a long-stay dog a second chance.

To celebrate the adoption, Petdirect generously gifted Kairangi a $250 voucher to help Diego settle into his forever home. Congratulations, Kairangi, and thank you for choosing to adopt. As the images below show, we're so glad you and Diego are loving life together!

“Dodge, a dog from our Nelson Centre, waited over a year before his person came along. We also saw Biscoff finally find a home – this rabbit was waiting to be chosen from our Nelson Centre for over 200 days,” Mr Westwood says. “Mitza, a cat from our Taupō Centre had waited 152 days.

“Our teams witnessed so many special moments of the animals they’d bonded with leaving the Centres to head to their new homes.”

SPCA would like to thank everyone who helped get these animals adopted – from Centre staff and volunteers, to members of the public who helped spread the word by sharing our posts and emails, to the adopters themselves.

There are still some long-stay animals who are waiting, including Azul from our Wellington Centre and Ash from our Greymouth Centre. Meet all the animals on our site.