We went to visit kitten today and talk to a vet from the surgical team. Kitten is only doing okish. Despite him moving his legs on Sunday morning the vets think that he has no pain sensation in his back legs as he does not respond to his respond to them putting pressure on this toes and legs. He is also not able to urinate himself and the vets are expressing him (basically emptying his bladder for him).

There is some good news though; according to the vet his tail has definitely got pain sensation and he turns around to glare at them when they pull at his tail :) there does not appear to be any internal organ damage and his bowels are working ok.

There is a crack in his spine near the rib cage which the vet said is fairly stable due to the location and that surgery was unlikely at this point in time.

That said kitten still needs to stay in the specialist animal hospital for at least a week where they will administer him pain relief, monitor him, express his bladder and put him in an oxygen tank. At the moment he is not using his back legs at all and when he moves himself around he is pulling him self by his front legs. Though while we were visiting he did not do too much as he is on morphine and was quite dopey.

So far the vet bill has been $1004.25, we have paid this  bill today but only with money on loan that we have to pay back. By the end of this week that will raise to $3000 because of the intensive care that he needs in the hospital. We desperately need your help.

We are a self funded group primarily and try very hard to keep our costs low and our effectiveness high. We know that we have been appealing for money a bit lately first for our investigation and then to help replace our camera light which was broken by an angry battery hen farmer earlier this month BUT we really really need help to get this little guy on his feet, quite literally.

If you can help please put donations into here.
Name: Animal Freedom Aotearoa
Bank: KiwiBank
Account #: 38-9009-0870126-00

There are new images that we took today. If you want to have a look click here. By the way the blue thing on his leg is a bandage to keep the IV line in place.

And here is a link to the invoice from the vets so you can see the costs so far.

Thank you for your on going support and we will update again soon.

Last night three members of AFA were out working on the dairy investigation near Huntly. As they were driving along State Highway One they spotted a little white and ginger kitten on the side of the road shivering up against the concrete barrier.

“We pulled over and one of us got out, and walked towards him and he meowed out as if asking for our help. His back legs were limp, and he was wet and shivering from the rain and cold. One of us picked him up in a blanket and carried him carefully to the car. He meowed as he was placed in the car but settled down when he was comforted and held. As he started to warm up he even began to purr.

As soon as we had made him comfortable we headed to Auckland to take him to the after hour’s emergency vet on Carrington Road. We feared that the vet would recommend that he be euthanaised as his rear end did not seem responsive.

Thankfully however while we were in the vet clinic the kitten moved his back legs which was great news. The vets weighed him at a mere 2.16 kgs, and found he had previously received bites on his back and was covered in fleas. We left him at the vets so that he could be x-rayed.

This morning we got a call to say that he had a broken back but it could be fixed with surgery or rest. This however needs to be investigated further by the surgical team on Monday morning. He is also not eating well and has been placed on an IV drip.

We are hopeful that once he is better we will be able to place him in the loving home which he deserves where he will get all the cuddles he wants, all the food and water he needs and he no longer has to live on the street. But first we need help with his vet bill. So far the vet bill stands at $1100 but that is without the surgery or ongoing care. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

Also if anyone can provide him with the home he needs after he’s better, please get in contact with us. It will be a while yet till he’s better but it will be great to know he will have a loving place to go to.”

One of our members had this to say of the experience "It just seemed so fortuitous that we were driving past at that particular time & so wonderful that we turn the car around & check to see what the huddled shape against the barrier was. It's always a moving experience helping a creature that is in such desperate need of help. The thought of his loud purring once he'd been given that help makes me feel quite emotional. I really hope he makes a good recovery. He must have felt so frightened & alone out there on the road."

Through the Dairy Investigation we have chatted with heaps of awesome people including some in Dunedin who have raised interest in forming an AFA local group in there home town.

This is really exciting for us as we would love to see AFA grow outside of Auckland and take the message of animal liberation to all corners of Aotearoa :)

If this interests you please check out the details here.

Over the last couple of weeks members of our investigation team have been looking into the treatment of animals on dairy farms as well as getting to know individual cows. Two weeks ago some of us were in Nelson and found injured calves, dead calves and a dairy cow with udders so large that she could hardly walk. But last weekend we got to see something awesome; well actually four awesome someone's; Cassidy, Spice, Sugar and her calve Cinnamon.

They are four cows who live with a dairy-free vegetarian lady out in east Auckland. Their mum Christine answered our call out for stories about calves who are still living with their mums and even let us go out and meet them. Christine told us heaps of stories about her babies but the cutest thing was about the bond between Sugar and her 11 month old calve Cinnamon.

Christine said that Cinnamon had reached the time to be weaned during the drought last summer and thought it was best for Sugar so that she did not have the added pressure of having to produce milk for Cinnamon. Christine separated the two by putting them in different paddocks but they continued to moo to each other; obviously sad to be separated and desperate to be back together. As would happen with dairy cows, if they were not milked, Sugars milk dried up. However sooner or later Cinnamon found her own way back into her mums paddock and began suckling. Much to Christine's surprise Sugar began lactating again and has been feeding a very chubby Cinnamon ever since despite the fact that she also eats grass, vegies and meal :)

This was such a contrast to the life of the calves we saw in Nelson who had been taken from their mothers and left in sheds on their own, were dead or in a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse.

Huge numbers of fish are brutalized and murdered every year for 'food'. In the many discussions about over fishing  the treatment and suffering of millions of fish goes unnoticed and rarely discussed.

It was awesome to see activists in Sweden heed the plight of fish by setting free millions of fish trapped in a sea based cage farm. YAY :)

For more on this story click here.

For more on fishing click here.