The significance of our uMngeni SPCA Emergency Number

Many people ask what constitutes an emergency. We, as an Animal Welfare organisation receive many, many emergency calls within any given month. While we are more than happy to provide immediate and important response to any animal in dire need of our assistance, we do not operate at full capacity 24/7.

Many calls we do receive after hours are not necessary and sometimes, don’t even pertain to an animal in need; it merely is a convenience to an owner who might just be unaware of our actual office hours. No administrative duties are performed after hours.

The meaning of the word Emergency is a situation that poses immediate risk to health, life, property and environment. This involves animal welfare too. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation.

Our SPCA organisation in South Africa requires all SPCA’s to have an after-hours emergency number.

As this number is an after-hours emergency number, it must be remembered that the staff member that answers this phone has worked a full day at the SPCA and they are on stand-by for EMERGENCIES ONLY.

Please note that the following situations are not constituted as an animal emergency and should therefore, be dealt with during office hours on our kennel number which is 033 -3304557.

• To make a booking for Boarding of animals.
• To cancel a Boarding booking, especially not at 1:00 in the morning.
• To ascertain what we charge for sterilisations.
• For strays running on the road – if the animal is not contained or being monitored by the time we arrive, it would have disappeared.
• For request for medical treatment when the animal has been ill the whole day – we are often contacted after office hours for assistance. We do not have a Vet on stand-by and you will need to contact your private Vet for assistance.

We appeal to the public to use this number with discretion; we are here to assist animals in need and we do this willingly, but at the same time the usage of our emergency number needs to be reasonable and fair to all involved.

We are always available for animals in need of urgent attention.