180 pets spayed during huge drive at Spartan company

A colony of feral cats was also sterilised at the drive in Spartan on August 3

August 16, 2019

Heleen Rossouw 1 minute read

Pet owners line up with their fur-babies to get them vaccinated at the second spayathon this year hosted by Pet Community Outreach (PCO) in Spartan.

Chaos of cuteness erupted at a spayathon at Sandoz Norvati Pharmaceutical Company in Spartan on August 3 as pet owners lined up for hours to get their fur-babies vaccinated or spayed.

It was the second drive hosted by Pet Community Outreach (PCO) this year, who partnered with multiple establishments to help pet owners to either vaccinate or spay their pets for free, or microchip them at a small price.

Esther Grové from PCO told Express: “We are a movement that takes care of pets whose owners cannot afford the services of a private vet by vaccinating, sterilising and educating owners so they can carry this information forward to future generations.

“We are also looking at educating children on how to care for their pets.”

Students from UNISA Veterinary School, as well as Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital, were recruited for the day to help out PCO with their spayathon drive. This group helped this doggy come back to his senses after surgery.

This partnership saw contributions from Pet and Pool, Unisa veterinarian students under the guidance of Dr JC Smit, Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital and DAFF vets, while Sandoz made its premises available for the drive.

This group of experts also worked together to spay a colony of feral cats at the event.

“We’ve managed to complete the sterilisation of 180 pets, while 340 cats and dogs received vaccinations,” said Lori-Kay Erasmus from PCO .

Express was shown the first station where animals were prepared for sterilisation and also visited the theatres where the sterilisations were performed.

Across the hall were small rooms with blankets and towels where the animals would later wake up.Grové said donations collected at PCO drives were used to cover the cost of medical equipment and drugs used to vaccinate and spay pets. Any excess donations would be used to prepare for the next drive.

PCO thanked all the partnering institutions for assisting on the day, especially the following private veterinarians and volunteers: Dr Magriet, Dr Marianne, Dr Achille, Dr Mike, Dr Gabriel, Dr Cher and Dr Kele; as well as final year students Leandri Klopper, Marinette Pretorius, Morgan Botha, Ziska Bekker and Christiaan de Jongh.