SHARING a home with over 50 animals is not what most people consider the ideal living arrangement but for local resident, Annebell Mitchell, and her family, it has become the norm.
Situated in a spacious Northdene home is an organisation called Help us Help Them Animal Rescue (HUHTAR), a non-profit organisation whose main aim is to find safe homes and loving families for abandoned animals. It is also a no kill shelter.
Annabell’s love for animals isn’t a passing phase, she took in her first stray animal 20 years ago but only recently did she formalise it by registering the organisation.
With the help of her son and daughter, Annabell cares for 11 dogs and 41 cats. Some of the animals fit society’s standard of ‘normal’ while others would be called deformed. One of the dogs, two-year-old Maggie, has an enlarged heart and liver.
While looking after these animals is a calling for Annabell, her aim is to find homes for these animals. “I love animals, they are really just like human beings so they deserve the same kind of love and affection that you would give to your child. I love having all the animals around but the logistics just don’t allow for it.”
Like any other animal organisation, HUHTAR offers adoption as well as foster care options for interested people. “We operate like any other animal organisation and we conduct routine visits to ensure that the animal will be in a safe home and we even stay on just to see how the animals fits into their new home.”
Looking after 50 animals is no easy task, neither is it cheap. Annebell spends more than R1000 a week on food with an additional R500 on cleaning material. “We sterilise the house daily as we do not want any contamination happening, seeing as we now house so many animals. We wash blankets daily and we have to pay for the animals’ routine vaccinations as well as their sterilization,” added Annebell.
Although the organisation sometimes gets discounted rates at the vet, the discounts are not nearly enough to cover all the annual vaccinations that the animals sometimes require which has left the organisation in debt.
“We are now appealing to residents to not only assist with cat and dog food or blankets and cash donations but to actually come forward and give these pets a home. One doesn’t need to go to a pet shop to buy a cat or a dog, why not love a pre-owned pet, why not give these animals a second chance?”
One can choose to formally adopt a pet or foster it for as long as they wish. “What is happening at the moment is that people who have heard about our organisation are giving us their pets instead of adopting them. One doesn’t need to keep the animal forever, all we ask is for people to foster for as long as they can.”
What the organisation needs: dog food, cat food, blankets, mesh, cement, cash donations, sponsor-a-vaccination.
To make a difference in the lives of the pets at HUHTAR contact Annabell on 072 607 0324 or Jennifer Mitchell on 071 899 4350/ 083 304 6886.
