HELP SOUTH AFRICA’S ANIMALS – GOAL R1 000 000
Please help me,
I accidentally came across this on a site where someone asks for donations. I have a dream but need an organisation such as you to make it happen. I am doing this purely out of the love for the animals of South Africa at my own cost. I am unemployed and want to do something positive rather than sit at home and feel sorry for myself. I have started a drive to help the suffering animals in South Africa. Our SPCA is government driven (and our government does not even care about its people, let alone the animals), they claim to receive NO FUNDS from the government. So, any and all Shelters, SPCA’s, Feral Assist and Veterinarians that help is 100% reliant on donations.
South Africa has one of the highest unemployment figures to date, in the world, and it is steadily growing. We need investors, I need to create a drive where, globally, people will be made aware of the dire situation in South Africa’s animals are in. And the few organisations that are out there trying to help are struggling (if not failing) to meet demands and cannot go on helping without some desperately needed funds and change. The cruelty in South Africa towards animals are getting increasingly worse and being unchecked and uncontrolled, people who do have pets are losing their pets in the most horrible of ways, and stray’s and ferals are being butchered and slaughtered in the cruelest of ways.
My goal is very ambitious, but I have to try. I am hoping to create awareness amongst everyone that chooses to be ignorant towards animals, I am trying to get our corrupt government to fund the SPCA, which they have assigned to be the legal covering body and pounds in main areas. The SPCA is flawed and causes a major rift in the system, causing a need for other organisations to rise to help fill the void. Very few people/companies want to acknowledge the problem they are inevitably helping to create by being ignorant and non-compliant. A massive funding is needed to sterilise the many animals of SA. That would be number 1. We have increased costs in SA, within our daily expenses, most people cannot meet the demand and fail to even maintain their family’s needs, and often the first that suffers is the animals. Rural areas have people living in the absolute worst of conditions and health, and their pets, even more so. People need pets because psychologically pets are simulating and healing to humans. To some, it is the only thing keeping them going. The Rural people and lower income, who feel like outcasts, rejects and worthless find comfort from their pets, and gives them the drive to keep going.
Same applies to the middle class and upper class. Even the most successful people have a need for pets. So, by ignoring the plea for pets is inexcusable in my eyes. The problem now is, people (80% of South Africa) cannot even afford to look after their families. Everything that is government supplied is lacking, medical being the worst, so people are driven to private practices which increases their rates at exponential speeds. Which causes an even bigger problem to maintain the even basic health of both humans and animals alike. The few organisations that manage to hang by a threat and scrapes by just barely every day is being put through an increasing strain to try and maintain the ever-growing demand and the sad truth is they cannot cope anymore. More animals in need are then being turned away, where do they go, they go to whoever has the heart to try and help to die a horrible slow death because no one can afford the help them.
The SPCA has a huge lacking problem, although I respect what they do, and the horrible things they need to deal with, I feel they need to look at the problems SA has realistically. Here I refer back to my explanation of the financial situation SA finds itself in. The SPCA wants every animal to be chipped, inoculated and neutered. With the explanation of how South Africans are struggling to survive, this is unrealistic. They cannot deny the majority of the population have pets, as explained, they are essential to our mental wellbeing. So, they need to look at a way to accommodate the current situation, because insisting to work with the governed law is actually causing more harm than good.
A very basic example:
When the fireworks go off on New Year’s Eve, it does not just cause 90% of animals to flee for safety, the fireworks actually start from Christmas to about a week after the new year. Animals hear this as if it explodes in their heads, and the people who do shoot the fireworks either does not care or is ignorant to this. So now you have thousands of animals that have nearly killed themselves to escape confinement (even from the most secure estates and properties). There are good people out there that try and help these animals before they are being killed by cars or worse other animal hating people (and we have more here than I care to know of). So, this good Samaritan takes the animal to the SPCA or Vet. By law the vet may only keep the found pet for 10 days then they must take it to the SPCA to be put down or put up for adoption (but because the SPCA’s are all overrun with animals, the likely outcome is euthanization.
The SPCA (along with all the other shelters), knows what is coming. Instead of putting up a wall on social media to notify people of found animals they keep it a secret. They expect your animal to be chipped, No. 1. And they expect you to physically come and look every day. South Africa has got one of the highest crime rates in the world. In today’s life, it is not practical to go to places in person, especially since this pet could have climbed into a container or a caravan and end up going home with the people (of course they don’t know this until they are on the other side of SA), and be received by an SPCA you will sadly never ever know about.
After 10 days they either put your beloved pet up for adoption or what is more likely, euthanize them. If your pet is being put up for adoption, then only will they be advertised on social media platforms. If a good person now comes and adopts a pet that actually already has a home, then two things happen.
No. 1. This pet, who is already traumatised, now goes to a new home where it is further traumatised and maybe tries to run away again and gets killed by other dogs, people or cars. Whereas it actually could have gone back to his/her family, they know and love.
No. 2. This person could have adopted a real homeless pet. That would have been two spots that opened up at the SPCA for animals who needed it. Instead, the influx of animals coming in is far greater than that going out, no wonder so many pets end up being euthanised.
So, this is where other Shelters are born, through the need of the majority and the lack of a government driven institute. But sadly, these organisations are almost invisible to the world and sadly mostly so to the SA population because rules are placed to restrict donations, such as the rule of an organisation has to be BEE. Otherwise, they cannot get tax returns on their donations. Most companies do not contribute and people, sadly, are too poor, who care and the wealthy regard themselves above dealing with these problems.
This leaves me, a nobody, reaching out to you, asking you for help, to help the animals of South Africa. Because if I don’t care enough to ask then no one will. The funds will go to the many shelters that help animals. Food, deworming, tick dip and flea dip. Also to vets who do the best they can with the most special prices they can offer for sterilisation drives. To buy from suppliers who are willing to offer discounts for welfare and then buy from them in bulk. I will start a website where all the vets, shelters and rescue organisations are listed for easy access as well as a database with lost and found animals to help owners get to their lost pets faster because most of the time there is a time constraint on it. SPCA’ s as explained above, dangerous animal killing people out there and cars. Relocation of feral colonies who are at companies that wants them disposed of Etc. And for animals who are abandoned and left for dead, to be rescued and rehomed.