Characteristics and challenges of companion animal rescue organisations in New Zealand

Figures & data

Figure 1. Flow diagram showing the process used to generate the study sampling frame for an online survey of New Zealand companion animal rescue organisations (CARO). All organisations in the New Zealand Charities Register whose main sector was “care and protection of animals” were identified and those whose main activity was “makes grants to other organisations” were excluded. Additional CARO were identified via national animal welfare organisations (CANZ), local animal rescue networks (AACINZ) and a Google search (e.g. “animal rescue,” “dog,” “cat,” “fostering,” “pet adoption”). Duplicate organisations, and those that solely provided services for wildlife or marine life were excluded.

Table 1. Number (%) of New Zealand companion animal rescue organisations (CARO) responding to an online survey or with publicly available location information, and number of estimated households, by region.

	Number (%) of CARO				CARO per 10,000 households
Region^a	Respondents	Non respondents^b	Total	Number of households^c	Respondents	Total
Northland	13 (12%)	7	20	77,500	1.7	2.6
Auckland	39 (37%)	36	75	598,200	0.7	1.3
Waikato	24 (23%)	14	38	191,100	1.3	2.0
Bay of Plenty	17 (16%)	3	20	132,800	1.3	1.5
Gisborne	7 (7%)	0	7	19,200	3.7	3.6
Hawke's Bay	12 (11%)	1	13	70,100	1.7.	1.9
Taranaki	10 (9%)	3	13	50,200	2.0	2.6
Manawatū-Whanganui	16 (15%)	11	27	101,800	1.7	2.7
Wellington	22 (21%)	13	35	211,700	1.0	1.7
Tasman	10 (9%)	1	11	23,400	4.3	4.7
Nelson	11 (10%)	1	12	22,800	4.8	5.3
Marlborough	10 (9%)	1	11	21,000	4.8	5.2
West Coast	7 (7%)	0	7	14,100	5.0	5.0
Canterbury	21 (20%)	10	31	255,300	8.2	1.2
Otago	18 (17%)	1	19	98,900	1.8	1.9
Southland	10 (9%)	4	14	42,300	2.4	3.3
Total^d	106	103

^a Regional council boundaries as specified by Statistics New Zealand.

^b In all except two cases where more information was available, only one region was identified for non-respondents based on the head office address. This may under-count regions operated in, in contrast to respondents, who were able to select all regions that applied. Up to five CARO may have some information duplicated in the non-respondent data column as they did not provide their name and “non-respondent” organisations were those not included in the final study.

^c Source: Stats NZ (2021); year used 2023.

^d Many respondent CARO operated in more than one region so the “Respondent” column adds up to > 106. The denominator of 106 was used for calculating percentages, although two CARO did not provide region of service.

Table 2. Number (%) of companion animal rescue organisations (CARO; n = 106) in New Zealand caring for different types of animals per year and the median (and IQR) number of that animal each CARO cared for, as reported by respondents to an online survey.

		Estimated number of animals cared for each year
Species	Number (%) of CARO	Median	IQR	Total
Cats	64 (60%)	200	50–400	37,427
Dogs	40 (38%)	95	32–195	7,689
Birds	20 (19%)	20	10–275	9,566
Rabbits	18 (17%)	25	5–50	1,582
Sheep	13 (12%)	5	4–10	180
Horses	13 (12%)	2	2–18	159
Cattle	13 (12%)	3	2–7	71
Goats	12 (11%)	4	2–5	150
Wildlife	12 (11%)	20	5–40	2,421
Guinea pigs	11 (10%)	7	4–65	485
Camelids	8 (8%)	2	2–4	23
Rats	8 (8%)	2	2–5	94
Mice	7 (7%)	6	3–13	27
Total				59,874

Table 3. Number (%) of companion animal rescue organisations (n = 86) in New Zealand that care for cats or dogs, that provide different types of services as reported by respondents to an online survey.

Services	Number	%
Rehoming of animals	72	84
Housing unwanted animals (including fostering)	70	81
Trap, neuter, and return	42	49
Providing veterinary care	39	45
Sanctuary	37	43
Education	37	43
Community microchipping	27	31
Finance	9	10

Table 4. Distribution of staff types of companion animal rescue organisations that care for cats or dogs (n = 72) that responded to an online survey.

	Number of staff per organisation
Staff	Range	Median	IQR	Total (%)
Paid full-time (n = 72)	0–650	0	0–0	668 (12%)
Paid part-time (n = 70)	0–9	0	0–0	16 (0.1%)
Volunteer full-time (n = 69)	0–50	0	0–1	168 (3%)
Volunteer part-time (n = 72)	0–3,500	5	0–20	4,847 (85%)
Total	1–4,150	11	5–25	5,699 (100%)

Table 5. Number (%) and proportion of companion animal rescue organisations (n = 72) that care for cats or dogs that have different numbers of full-time and total staff and their proportions of volunteers to total staff as reported by respondents to an online survey.

	Number (%)
Number of full-time, paid staff
0	62 (86%)
1–4	8 (11%)
≥5	2 (3%)
Total	72 (100%)
Volunteers as a proportion of all staff
100%	57 (79%)
90–99%	7 (10%)
80–89%	5 (7%)
<80%	3 (4%)
Total	72 (100%)
Number of total staff (including volunteers)
0–10	35 (49%)
11–50	27 (36%)
>50	11 (15%)
Total	72 (100%)

Table 6. Number of staff and animals cared for by companion animal rescue organisations that care for cats or dogs (n = 67) and which responded to an online survey.

	Estimated number of cats and dogs per year
Number of staff (including volunteers)	1–50	51–100	101–250	251–500	>500	Total
1–5	10	3	4	1	0	18
6–10	4	0	5	2	1	12
11–20	2	1	5	3	0	11
21–50	3	2	5	4	2	16
51–99	0	0	3	0	3	6
≥100	0	0	1	0	3	4
Total	19	6	23	10	9	67

Figure 2. Chart showing willingness of companion animal rescue organisations that responded to an online survey (n = 106) to consider sharing anonymised data with different groups.

Stats NZ. Subnational Population Projections: 2018(Base)–2048. https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/subnational-population-projections-2018base2048 (accessed 8 April 2024). Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, NZ, 2021

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