SPCA Helps Funda Nenja Township Dogs
Last week the volunteers from Funda Nenja, the township dog training initiative in Mpophomeni, brought a little sick puppy named Danger in to the uMngeni SPCA. His young owner had given them his house number but couldn’t remember his phone number. Thankfully, with care and treatment Danger recovered but when our Field Officer tried to return him there was no such house number. Luckily the boy came to training this week to ask about his puppy. Inspector Dudu Abraham and Field Assistant Dingaan Tshabalala immediately popped Danger into their vehicle and took him out to the training venue at Zamathuli School. By the time they arrived there was a queue of dogs waiting for SPCA assistance. One tan bitch had just weaned pups and her owners no longer wanted her, they only kept a puppy, one dog had a suspected broken leg and another pup was obviously seriously ill. There was also a line of dogs waiting to have muthi put on their ears, some so badly bitten by flies that they had open bleeding sores. The training classes are full of young puppies and several bitches were clearly pregnant underlining the desperate need for constant sterilisation drives to keep numbers under control. SPCA is all about prevention of cruelty and sterilisation is prevention at a primary level. We already have an impressive record for outreach work, including 100 sterilisations in January alone. With additional resources made possible by public donations we can do even more. We have the passion and the expertise to drive it. We just need the funds! Please mark any donations for this sterilisation campaign accordingly. Thank you.
Our animal shelter in Campbell Road has been inundated with animals for the last couple of months. Fortunately we have also done exceptionally well with our adoptions but our facilities are still very full. Due to seasonal factory and supplier shut downs we have found our major donations of food have fallen off and consequently our stocks have run very low. This obviously means that we are having to go out and buy pet food at normal retail prices. This time of year is what we call “kitten and puppy season” with little bundles of joy in every available space so we are appealing for donations of dry or soft food particularly for puppies and kittens.
In just ten days time we will be celebrating Valentine’s Day: time to show our love, not just for our romantic sweethearts, but also for our soul mates, best friends and companions including of course our beloved pets. The uMngeni SPCA will be holding its annual Valentine’s Day Tea at the Centre, 39 Main Street, Howick on Saturday 12th February. We do hope you will join us for tea/coffee and delicious homemade eats anytime between 9 and 12. Bring a friend (two- or four-legged!) and be spoiled on this special occasion. Valentine’s Day is about hearts, roses and beautiful poems so spend the morning browsing through our wonderful selection of roses and other plants as well as our fully stocked shelves of books to suit all tastes including the romantic and poetic.
Heather Somerville, PRO, uMngeni SPCA
