Animal shelter forced to place operations on hold
For now, their primary focus is to rehome the dogs currently in their care and to make sure they cover their debts before December.
It’s something they have been warning the community about for the past year and a half. But it might be too late now.
“With immediate effect, The 9th Day Animal Shelter will unfortunately not be able to take in any more animals or assist with any more rescues.” This is the message posted by the shelter’s founder Charmaine Booysens on their Facebook page.
For the past year and a half they have begged and pleaded, sent emails to corporates, to counsellors and to the municipality, with very little response.
“We’ve had meetings with corporates, councillors and the municipality, but we still do not have premises or piece of land that we can move to at the end of December – and we also still have very little support.”
Apart from that, they also have a lot of debt to clear since they only get about R16 000 a month in donations and debit orders, which is not enough to care for nearly 200 dogs.
For now, their primary focus is to rehome the dogs currently in their care and to make sure they cover their debts before December.
“We are still R11 000 short on our boarding fees, R7 000 for our vet fees and we have enough food for the next few days. We will still be able to care for 15 to 20 dogs with the funds we are getting, but that is it.”
If they do not rehome the dogs in their care by end of December, they will be handed over to other shelters and euthanisation facilities like the SPCA.
“I will never turn my back on rescue, we are simply ‘down-scaling’ until we have enough backing from the public and until we are financially strong enough and have a place where we can have kennels and know we and our dogs will not have to move again.”
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Charmaine’s hope for now is that by this time next year, they will have secured a property where she and her team and the dogs can settle.
“Please – we are begging for any help to relieve some of the pressure.”
To help, contact Charmaine on 082 924 9337 for more information.
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