North residents urged to adopt shelter’s wonderful animals
The shelter is eager to help all animals despite reaching its maximum capacity.
The Wollies Animal Shelter in the north of Pretoria is full to the brim, so it is urging residents to adopt an animal.
According to Joggie Trexler of the shelter, the quantity of animals arriving at the shelter is alarming.
Trexler said people do donate food but in the past two months, they had a tough time feeding the animals.
“If an animal comes in and stays longer than seven days, then our expense is to sterilise them and get them to the vets,” he said.
He said the shelter also does microchipping.
It has different sponsors that help the shelter to improve the animals’ stay.
Volunteers come in to walk the dogs, more on weekends.
The shelter, which feeds over 1 000 animals daily, had some challenges in the past month as it recorded zero adoptions for cats.
“The issue is that when an animal stays over seven days, we have to sterilise it, take it to the vet and that requires finances.
“We have a sterilisation project every Tuesday, whereby a doctor comes in and checks all the animals and provides medication for them.”
Kennel manager Innocent Gwandiwa, who has been working for the shelter for the past 11 years, said the animals deserve beautiful homes too.
“It’s nice working with the animals but also sad at the same time to see them coming in in a terrible condition.
“It’s mostly stray dogs who are found in the streets and those animals who lost their parents,” said Gwandiwa.
He said most of the puppies are Africanus.
“The Africanus is well disposed without being obtrusive and it is a friendly dog, showing watchful territorial behaviour.
“It is a medium-sized, lightly-built dog with a slender muzzle and usually a short coat and has been described as resembling a cross between a Greyhound and a Dingo,” said Gwandiwa.
The shelter uses 500kg of food a day to feed the dogs and its 21 employees ensure that all animals are fed.
“People must just come in numbers and learn more about their preferred animal and if they are happy, they can take the animal home.
“You can’t just have a dog and not look after it, you must treat it the same way you treat your child because they require a lot of attention, so you must come here prepared,” said Gwandiwa.
Lientjie Duivelaar, who has been with the shelter for almost four years, said a cat is the best medicine for a broken soul.
“Cats will accept you the way you are.
“If you are a broken person and feel like life has thrown you down, there’s no better medicine than a cat,” said Duivelaar.
She said she has loved cats since childhood.
“I never thought in my life I would be working with cats at a shelter but I think my love for pets drove me to this wonderful shelter.
“One crazy fact about cats is that when you put butter under their feet, they won’t walk away,” said Duivellar.
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