Animal shelters facing a crisis

Animals being neglected and abandoned is a troubling reality in Rand West City – something rescue centres, as well as veterinarians, have to deal with regularly.

The Herald decided to look into pet abandonment which is evidently a local crisis.

Louisa Rossouw founder of the Cast Aways Animal Sanctuary explained their mission is to get abandoned and neglected animals off the streets. The first thing they do is take the animals to the vet for medical treatment. Once the vet has received the go-ahead from them they sterilise and vaccinate the animals after which they are placed up for adoption.

She noted some months they take in five to six animals other times up to 15. This month they took in 20 puppies and five adult dogs.

“We are under tremendous strain because every animal that walks into our rescue centre has to get medical attention. They have to be dewormed and vaccinated and I’m not even talking about the food. Puppies need to be fed proper vet food. We are seen as a smaller shelter so finances are scarce and more than half of the expenses come out of our own pockets,” said Rossouw.

She mentioned a case they had on March 20, where a severely neglected dog was found on the side of the road. They gave her medication for worms, ticks, and fleas at the vet and gave her some pampering at a grooming parlour. She mentioned she is currently in foster care for two weeks where she will receive tender loving care after which she will go to her forever home.

“With our networking, no owner has come forward and we haven’t seen any person looking for her through networking. I believe she was most probably dumped,” Rossouw claimed.

In addition, Stephan Hendricks and founder as well as director of the No More Tears Animal Rescue said they take in many dogs that have been left behind or need to be rescued. He noted nine out of the 10 times the animals are not sterilised and they don’t know their vaccination status. He noted the first thing they do when they pick them up off the streets, is check if the animals are microchipped. Then they are taken to the vet before they are taken to the kennels. They are dewormed, and treated for ticks and fleas after which they are sterilised and vaccinated.

He said one dog taken off the streets recently cost them between R2 000 and R2 500. According to Stephan this amount is besides the kennel costs which go from R900 to R1 200 per month per dog. He added food is also expensive and they have many large to medium-sized dog breeds who eat regularly.

They get between seven to 10 dogs monthly that they either pick up off the streets or that has been left behind, or are rescued from bad situations. He also noted this puts a lot of strain on animal rescue centres.

He noted the criteria for a person to adopt an animal is an application form which serves as a contract, they do home checks and they need to make sure the dogs on the property get along with the dog that is being adopted. The dogs need to sleep inside as there are many cases of poisoning. The other dogs on the property need to be sterilised and the owners need to be able to afford their vet. He added that home checks, sterilisation, and microchipping of the animals are non-negotiable.

Stephan then referred to two animal cases in their care recently.

Firstly, Oupa is an older mixed-breed boerboel they took in around two months ago after he was roaming the streets for about a week.

“No one knew who the owner was or where he came from,” said Stephan.

He also mentioned they networked him extensively and still no one came forward.

Secondly, Hope was found a week before Christmas while she was running around the streets. They tried to catch her, but she was too scared. Stephan noted they were eventually able to trap her and she was taken to the vet adding it seemed as though she was just dumped.

“Again, no one came looking for her or asked about her. We help where we can and where we are needed,” he emphasised.

He added the costs are a lot and they need donations, luckily it hasn’t come to a point where they had to close their doors. They have, however, had to say for a week or two they won’t be able to help so they can take care of their vet bills.

“Randfontein’s animals are extremely dependent on an organisation such as ours. We regularly go into the community and give people dog food and cat food. We also help with vet bills where we can,” concluded Stephan.