The provincial government has abruptly reversed course on providing more funding to the Nova Scotia SPCA after the group said it would stop investigating a growing number of animal abuse complaints.

Premier Darrell Dexter announced Thursday morning that the Department of Agriculture will give the SPCA the $100,000 it had requested to cover the cost of enforcing animal protection laws.

"Animal safety is paramount and this additional funding for animal cruelty investigations for domestic animals will enable the SPCA to continue this work," Dexter said in a statement.

"The welfare of animals is a shared responsibility and I appreciate the work that the SPCA and others in the community do."

Last week, the Nova Scotia SPCA announced it would stop doing animal abuse investigations if it didn't get an additional $100,000 by April 1.

The Department of Agriculture had initially denied the request for funding, saying the $3,000 the SPCA receives annually from the department is enough.

"Their most recent revenue statement shows that they took in over $1 million and they've indicated the investigations cost them $200,000 to $270,000," Minister of Agriculture John MacDonell said at the time.

"We feel that it's pretty clear in the act that their mandate is the investigations, so they're taking in four times the amount of money they've indicated they've spent on investigations."

The SPCA maintained it was strapped for cash and said the $1 million in revenue also covers adoptions services, sheltering and veterinary care.

There were 1,608 animal abuse investigations conducted in 2011, according to the SPCA. The average salary for an investigator is $38,000.

The Department of Agriculture continues to be responsible inspections and investigations for farm animals, as it has been since 2008 when the department and the SPCA mutually agreed the province should take on that responsibility.