North Otago SPCA was close to having a physical home in Oamaru, but due to recent earthquake damage, those plans have stalled.
In 2010, there was a public appeal to help the organisation move into new premises after the shelter in Stuart St failed an SPCA inspection.
SPCA president at the time Aveley Gameson said the Stuart St shelter leaked badly and was in a disgusting state of repair.
The Stuart St site was closed in April 2014.
SPCA Otago executive officer Sophie McSkimming said a building and a site was now secured thanks to the animal clinic franchise Vetlife.
The building, from Omarama, was to be placed on the back of Vetlife Oamaru's Thames St address.
But thanks to an earthquake that struck about six weeks
ago, the building's relocation was delayed.
Then the building was redirected to Ashburton after it was found Vetlife Ashburton's facilities had earthquake damage.
Ms McSkimming was unable to say how long the wait for the building would now be.
"I'm in talks now with Vetlife to how we can put something together. It's been a bit of a hiccup and now we're just working around it.
"North Otago's probably fed up waiting for a new building, but there's a lot of things that have to happen in the background.''
She said a few years ago the North Otago branch went into administration.
"They were pretty much not going to be an SPCA anymore.
"We were approached and asked if we were interested
in absorbing our SPCA into North Otago and we said yes, because we were already providing the inspectorate services to North Otago.''
She said the area had not suffered due to the lack of a physical address for SPCA workers and volunteers.
North Otago had one designated SPCA worker, and inspectors travelled from Dunedin.
"The service they've been getting is possibly on par if not better than the service you were getting when we had a centre.''
To contact the SPCA, call (03) 473-8252
