IN MY ARMS: An unidentified little boy cradles his dog outside his home in Santaville
ANIMAL welfare workers are fighting an extraordinary battle against terrible odds in the Eastern Cape platteland as communities mushroom, poverty and ignorance bite deep and four-legged creatures suffer the brunt.
Weekend Post focused on Graaff-Reinet and the work being done there by the organisation Camdeboo Sterilisation Initiative (CSI).
But the challenges are similar – if not sterner – elsewhere in more isolated areas, where no vets are even available.
When the going gets tough, however, the tough-as-takkies animal welfare folk get going.
In tiny Noupoort, for example, the couple of women volunteers making up Noupoort Animal Care, regularly bundle the cadaverous local dogs into a bakkie and drive them through to CSI or vets in Colesberg and Middelburg to help with spaying, neutering and other treatment.
In Steytlerville, a retired woman, Louise Kilian, does the same with her Steytlerville Animal Rescue Centre.
Once-a-month, leaving at 4am, she trucks needy animals from the local township through to the vet in George.
Before she got offered accommodation she was sleeping overnight in her bakkie.
There is a myriad of similar small and medium-size groups like the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), the Animal Welfare Society and the Animal Anti-Cruelty League – all “fighting the good fight” without any state funding.
The roster of cases on the NSPCA website being dealt with by them, reads like a horror story, with shocking accounts of neglect and deliberate injury tersely summarised.
It is impossible to gauge the magnitude of the problem, to plumb its depth, NSPCA spokesman Christine Kuch says. “It’s an iceberg situation.” Founded three years ago, CSI works in tandem with the SPCA in Graaff-Reinet, focusing on the poor communities in and around the historic Karoo town – Kroonville, Santaville, Smartie Town, Umasizakhe, Tjoksville, Asherville and New Location.
Their aim is “to try to reduce animal suffering, neglect and abuse through sterilisation of domestic pets”.
Their strategy is guided by the estimated figure of one million animals put down in shelters in South Africa each year because there are too many pets and too few good homes.
CSI estimates that one female dog and her offspring, in six years, through multiple generations and successive progeny, can be responsible for the birth of 67 000 dogs. And one female cat and her offspring, in seven years can be responsible for the birth of 420 000 cats.
“Are we winning the battle? I’d say not. From just 17 animals sterilised in our first year, we have now done a total of 400. But in terms of dogs alone, there are about 20 000 in the townships here. So we are not even making a dent,” CSI founder Erma Voigt says.
While sterilising dogs is the main focus, CSI has made good inroads into the Graaff-Reinet feral cat colony by trapping, sterilising and releasing, curbing an explosion in numbers, she says.
The group has no building to work from so its rescue and re-homing is done with the help of a handful of dedicated foster homes.
With no rent, no salaries, no cost for transport – as team members use their own vehicles and fund their own fuel – all donations get used directly for the animals.
John Dwele with his dog Witvoet after receiving attention from the CSI team
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