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Category:
Animal Welfare Organisation
Each Year we assist over 5000 animals from Grahamstown and the surrounding areas. We respond to any animals in need and provide a 24hr service that operates 365 days a year. Our geographical area covers over 90,000 properties goes up to Craddock, includes all of the Makana District, over to Patterson, out to Peddie and down to Bathurst. We get an average of 30 calls a day and get called out to urgent acts of cruelty, road traffic accidents involving animals, animals trapped in snares and animals in any form of distress or discomfort. We deal with any injured and sick animals, including farm animals and wildlife.
Top 3 Projects:
Bakkie fund, to support our existing bakkie which is wearing out fast as it has to cover our exceptionally large geographical and has already covered almost 100,000KM’s in just two years!
An onsite Surgery to allow us to provide on-site treatment and operations including sterilisation.
A New Cattery to upgrade our existing dilapidated facilities to give enrichment and accommodation for the cats we look after.
Our Needs:
We have a constant need for animal food, for the significant number of dogs and cats, who come into our care, donations towards our vet bills and for vaccinations and medication. Donations towards our Bakkie fund, or for donations of any of the materials listed below to allow us to upgrade our security, repair our dilapidated stray kennel block and out buildings, re-develop our kennels to bring them up to the recognized standard, re-develop and extend our cattery, to allow us to take in more cats and to repair our office block and staff facilities, including a functioning shower room to allow the staff to fully disinfect themselves after dealing with infectious animals. We have also recently had one of our Sceptic tanks condemned and desperately need to re-route kennel drainage as a result. In addition to all this our water and electricity usage due to the kennel and cattery designs and the state of our infrastructure in not sustainable, we are trying to raise funds to put in a borehole, source Solar Geezer’s, increase our number of water tanks and to incorporate green energy solutions, such as solar panels and electrical energy storage into the Centre.
The list of building materials currently is as follows:
25 x 50kg Bags of Cement
1000kg of Building Sand
2000m of brickforce
50m Water Piping and fittings
Plastic Guttering, Brackets, Connecters, Downpipes.
25m of PVC Drainage pipe
3 x Kitchen Worktops
Corrugated Tin Roofing Sheets
Roof Timbers
Doors, Frames and Windows, lintels.
Admiral Grey Stoop Paint
Chrome Silver Direct to Metal Paint
50kg Steel Tensioning Wire (Staal Draad)
50kg Binding Wire
This is not an exhaustive list, and any assistance in sourcing any of these materials, would be gratefully appreciated. We are urgently in need of the Sand, Cement, Water Pipe and Drainage Pipe.
Statisitics:
Success Story:
This year alone we have had many success stories, including being the first SPCA to respond with aid, food, available staff and veterinary assistance to help with the recent fires along the garden route and around PE and Uitenhage. However our biggest successes have been in successfully prosecuting three individuals for shocking acts of Animal Cruelty, including stabbing a dog, shooting goats and allowing pigs to starve and live in unimaginable conditions, The SPCA are the ONLY Animal Welfare Charity who are able to enforce the animal protection act, which allows us to prosecute and hold individuals accountable for acts of Animal cruelty, seize animals and to save them from further suffering. It is one of the most important roles that we have. I have enclosed below a summary of the most recent prosecution which is one of the many success stories, in our continued strive to end animal cruelty.
Inspector report regarding the pig case.
On the 6 December 2016 the Grahamstown SPCA Inspector was doing his routine inspection at Glen Craig Piggery Farm where he noticed a particular pigsty with pigs that were in a shocking condition.
He inspected the first pigsty where he discovered there were 6 teenager piglets, about 2 years old but they were in a shocking state. They appeared to be emaciated, dehydrated, sunburned and there was a dead pig which was already decomposed in the same pig sty with them. These piglets had no water or food or proper shelter. The water troughs were bone dry which showed that they had not had water for a considerable time. Some water and food troughs were filled in with soil. There was nothing for the pigs to eat or to drink what so ever other than soil. The pigsty was also on a shocking state as there were protruding objects like nails, iron sheets, wires and there were plastic bags inside the pigsty which can cause complications to the pigs if they eat them.
He went to the second pigsty to continue his inspection and found that there were 6 piglets and they were about 6 months old. These piglets were also in bad condition and they appeared to be covered with mange and were also emaciated, dehydrated and sunburned. The living conditions they were in were shocking. There were no signs of food and water as the food and water containers were also bone dry. These piglets were in a desperate state and as he was approaching the pigsty they came running towards him thinking he was going to give them food and water. This pigsty was also on a poor condition as it was covered with plastic bags and there was an iron flat bar that was lying there with no purpose other than to cause injury to the animals.
Having identified, who the owner was we issued him with a warning for animal cruelty and instructed him to provide suitable food, water for the pigs/piglets, to address the issues with their living conditions and to get veterinary treatment for those pigs/piglets who required it. He went back to the farm on the 13th December 2016 to do a follow up inspection and he was astonished when he found that the warning had been ignored and that the situation had worsened as he found one dead piglet and one was very, very sick and he believed could die at any given time.
He took the sick piglet to Grahamstown Vet Clinic. The sick piglet was examined by Dr Clayton from Grahamstown Vet Clinic and Dr Clayton recommended that the piglet must put down. This piglet was very, very sick and was unable to move any part of his body except his eyes. Dr Clayton took the stomach for post mortem and she found that there was nothing in stomach.
Given the shocking state of the pigs, upon his return visit, on the 14th December 2016 he went to the magistrate court to obtain a warrant to seize the pigs. The warrant was granted to him and he successfully removed the pigs that day. The pigs were taken to Frontier Vet to be examined. Sadly due to the extremely poor condition they were in, and on veterinary advice six of the ten who were seized were put down. The remaining four pigs were taken to our custody (SPCA) and a cruelty charge case was opened against the owner of the pigs. The case was investigated by SAPS, and the owner of the pigs was arrested the next day, he was released on Bail, pending the trail. It took six months for the case to be finished.
There were various postponements to the case, however it was finalised on the 26th June 2017 and the owner was found guilty. He was sentence to ten months in prison with the option of a fine of Five thousand Rand. Furthermore the court found the owner unfit to own any animals for the period of 12 months and the court told him that he must reimburse the expenditure that incurred from feeding and treatment that were given to his pigs by the Grahamstown SPCA.
The court gave the pigs to the SPCA and we have now safely sent them onto their new home.
Contact Details:
Mark Thomas
SPCA Centre Manager
Old Bay Road, Off Rautenbach Road,
Grahamstown 6139
0466223233
