|
Friday, March 03, 2006
These animals are desperate We often receive appeals for help at Health24. We can only publish a very selected few, but the following email from a Health24 user appealing for help for animals in distress was heartrending enough that we couldn’t let it pass us by. Health24 checked with the SPCA in Wellington – and everything in the email is indeed true. Their contact details appear below, as does the cellphone number of the person who wrote this very sad letter. Hallo My name is Liezel. I want to tell a gripping story and want people out there to realise what is going on in our society. I live and work in Wellington. I am just an ordinary citizen and happened to see what is going on at the SPCA. They are really struggling with money and they do not have enough funds to buy food for all the animals. The animals sleep in the cold at night and there are not enough blankets for all of them. Some don't even have bowls for their food. This is an appeal to animal lovers – please, you don't have to give money, just go to your nearest shop or Pet shop and buy a blanket, cat/dog food and a toy. If every person would just soften their hearts towards these homeless animals. All the animals that end up at the SPCA and that are not claimed are being put down and that is most of them. There are simply too many. Winter is around the corner and it gets freezing cold here in the Boland. Cats thrown from a car window Coleen at the SPCA Wellington told me that they were called out for help just outside Wellington somewhere the other day. Someone had thrown out litters of kittens from their car window and other vehicles were running them over. The few that did survive had to be put down. Then there is the gripping story of a pregnant dog. Her owner did not want her anymore so she was knocked over the head and thrown in a shallow mud pool where she lay for 4 days trying to survive. She had the puppies while lying there in pain, burning in the sun. A few puppies died and the others sat with their mother in the mud, hungry, waiting for her to wake up. When Coleen and the SPCA got there, they pulled her out of the mud. When they checked her, they found a heartbeat, and suddenly she came to and waved her tail to show how proud she was of her pups. The pups however were extremely weak and anaemic, because of all the ticks on them and of sitting in the boiling sun without their mother to nurture them. They all had to be put down, including the mother. Waiting in vain for a home Then I went to visit the SPCA for the first time. To me it looked like a squatter camp. The animals don't have enough space. They are cramped together in their cement cages. The SPCA only has sponsors to rely on. The cold cement cages with mesh wire are all they have to sleep in. It's very cold and very lonely and the winter is around the corner. I cried my eyes out when I saw the most beautiful medium-sized dog with white hair and brown spots, sitting in the corner with its face pressed against the mesh wire, waiting for its owner to collect him. It stood up, walked in a small circle and sat down again, doing this over and over again. In the same cage was a female dachshund; she was dropped there because she was on heat. My eye caught the most gorgeous Siberian Husky, with the thickest coat I have ever seen. Because of the extreme heat we have in Wellington of up to 39 degrees, he won't survive. There is no protection from the heat or any means for him to cool down. I saw no toys whatsoever. For one hour only, the animals get to come out their cages and run "free". But they don't, they mourn and grieve in a corner waiting for their owners and have no one to play with. It's a horrible thing to see. I went to the office with Coleen, the manager of Wellington SPCA. Sitting there, being attacked by flies, a friendly black Labrador lifted my right arm with his nose to be stroked. Without looking, I stroked him and felt something on his back. When I looked I almost fell off my chair in shock. He had a huge bloody scab on his back from his neck all the way down to his tail. Someone had thrown boiling water on him, for no reason. What you can do to help These animals desperately need warm blankets, toys, rawhide bones or hooves to chew on, more cages, bigger cages, more space to run and play and more shelter. When I left, all the animal's eyes lit up and they all got excited, because they thought I was going to take them with me. I cried for hours. The SPCA is in desperate need of an inspector, someone who reacts to a complaint regarding someone abusing an animal. The inspector needs a salary which the SPCA can't afford. Please make a contribution to our Wellington SPCA. I will help people who want to give something but can't get to the SPCA. I will fetch it or it can be posted to me. Thank you very much. Liezel Liezel’s cellphone number - 072 1860 560 Colleen (SPCA) Wellington (021) 864 3726 [Posted by: Davina at 2:12 pm] |
 Every animal deserves love, protection and our voice.
You are visitor number:
|
