915 animals surrendered to Nelspruit SPCA in past year

The chairperson of the Nelspruit SPCA, Lize Pienaar, said the past year was once again a challenging experience, but at the same time also amazing.

Speaking at the Nelspruit SPCA’s AGM held on July 29, she said, “We had to overcome many hurdles and faced many hardships, but we also had wonderful moments of success and achievement.”

One thing she noted was that the value and desperate need for educating the public has become clearer than ever before.

During October 2020 only two committee members remained after four resigned. A new committee was formed and currently the SPCA has seven dedicated committee members working.

“In the short period of time this committee has been functioning, a new vehicle was purchased, negotiations started to appoint an onsite veterinarian, the flat was upgraded to accommodate an inspector, renovations commenced on the interior of our building, negotiations commenced for a charity shop in Village Centre and a recycling station was established at the SPCA.

“During January 2021 we appointed a trainee inspector and he is doing very well. We also appointed a field officer to deal specifically with the feral cat matter.

“The society has been functioning for more than a year without the services of a full-time inspector and had to rely on a committee member/ volunteer inspector for this purpose.”

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Outreaches and educational activities took place in an effort to teach communities to treat their animals with compassion and respect. Cruelty statistics in areas where outreaches took place have declined.

During this financial year the SPCA admitted 860 stray animals (only 63 were claimed by owners), 915 animals were surrendered and there was a total of 166 adoptions.

Various challenges exist for the organisation in the following categories: facilities, vehicles, staff, finances, stray cattle and feral cats.

The facilities were built in 1989 and are in need of some upgrades. These were well underway before the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the process.

Although they have purchased a new vehicle recently, the old ones are constantly in need of repair, which hampers the process of going out to cruelty cases.

Financially, the society received its grant payout from the municipality in August 2020 for the previous year, they are however still awaiting payment for the year 2019/20.

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The ever persisting problem of cattle roaming the streets in the city is not the SPCA’s responsibility, but it said the public does not realise that the task actually befalls the municipality.

The organisation receives hundreds of calls to trap, remove and/or sterilise feral cats.

“We could not manage at all because it needs full-time commitment from trained volunteers or permanent staff members designated to run this project. This has been, and still is, a huge concern for us.”

Efforts during the year to recruit volunteers have failed, but during January 2021 a field officer was appointed to address this matter specifically.

Lastly, the chairperson thanked all those involved in supporting the SPCA.

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“We want to thank our amazing community for their support, our staff for doing a sterling job and being there for every animal in need, our colleagues at NSPCA for the support, the Barberton and White River SPCAs for being available and willing to assist us when we needed you, and the dedicated veterinarians at both Van Wijk Street Animal Hospital and West Acres Animal Hospital.

“Last but not least I want to thank our dedicated committee members for working full-time, running businesses and for sacrificing their personal lives and every available minute to serve the animals in our community.”