The Benoni SPCA has been a place I have kept close to my heart since I was a little girl, for the good work they do with picking up strays and helping the sick and injured to a full recovery.
What they go through every day is hard work and for me it would sure be traumatising.
However, should the SPCA not help the people who cannot afford to take their pets to the vet?
Well in my case, actually with two cases, no, they cannot.
My mom and I would often go there to look at the animals and donate a few items.
We have actually adopted a few animals from there.
The only dog we have adopted from them was a grown Rottweiler-cross-German shepherd.
We had him for five years.
We had to take him to the vet due to the fact that he had bad arthritis.
We got him medicine and kept up the supply until we fell into a financial hard time and could not afford his medicine anymore.
After a few months when his medicine was finished he took a turn for the worst.
One day he was running after his tennis ball, the next he did not even walk far.
My mother immediately phoned the Benoni SPCA for help.
They are supposed to help people and care for these animals because they have caring hearts, right?
That is what you think the SPCA should do, but no; we got turned away and shooed away to an expensive vet that, at the time, we could not afford and two days later he died.
My mother asked the Boksburg SPCA but we were referred back to the Benoni SPCA as we were not in their district.
The Benoni SPCA blatantly denied my nine-year-old dog, which had arthritis in his hips and legs, medical care.
If he had gotten help that day he would have survived.
I was appalled when they refused.
I had four dogs in the beginning of the year, now I have two left.
It is heartbreaking to see my dogs, my babies, my everything, go through pain.
I got a Labrador puppy for my birthday in April.
What a loving yet extremely naughty dog she was.
Everything was fine until the other day.
She just started throwing up mucus one morning and had diarrhea.
That night and the next day she was okay.
On the third day she was extremely ill.
She did not move, did not eat, was vomiting mucus and her faeces was bloody.
Of course, knowing what had happened the last time we took a chance of phoning the SPCA for help, they turned us down again.
My angel died the next morning.
We were going to take her to my second cousin, who is a vet, but it was too late.
He said she should have received help immediately and that we should have gone to our local SPCA.
He would have helped us but could not as he lives far from us.
My family said we should go to the Benoni SPCA for help and they were disgusted to find out that they refused to help us.
It is not only I who had been denied medical help for our animals.
A family friend’s cat was also denied a life-saving operation, which they would have paid off monthly.
The Benoni SPCA turned her away too and her cat died.
Since when did the SPCA start to care only about money?
I thought it was about saving animals.
The SPCA is a hypocritical centre who only cares about money.
It is pathetic how they preach “stop animal abuse, we care” and yet they will not help us.
The fact is, yes, there are worse cases out there.
Do they deny them medical care?
When there was a sick dog at the house across from ours, of the owners could not afford medical care, did they help?
Yes, they actually did; the dog died on the way to the SPCA after they were phoned to attend to this dog for weeks.
Why does the SPCA go to Daveyton once a week to provide free medical care to animals there?
I am so sorry I did not live in Daveyton when my dearest animals needed help.
People who actually love animals and who will do anything to save them are heroes and should be working at the SPCA, not people without any remorse who only care about money.
Please, if you go to adopt animals at the Benoni SPCA, beware that the staff have a tendency to bark.
The fact of the matter is when we needed their help, they turned us away… twice, and this after our many years of supporting, donating and adopting of pets from them.
Editor’s note:
Chairwoman of the Benoni SPCA Marcelle Meredith said the majority of SPCAs, including the Benoni SPCA, do not have a veterinarian on their staff or a veterinary hospital and have to use the services of private veterinarians.
She said pet owners may be able to get cheap veterinary services at an SPCA if you can prove that you are genuinely impoverished, but when people donate to an SPCA they do so to help a homeless, cruelly-treated animal and this is where donations must be directed.
“If we subsidised the public who earn income, we would soon run out of money and have to close,” said Meredith.
She said they assess priority areas by levels of poverty and greatest need coupled with the degree (or lack) of resources.
“We assess whether individuals qualify objectively and we require proof, including their level of income or lack of it plus proof of genuine basic living expenses; these are our criteria,” she added.
“The SPCA is a welfare organisation, for example, if a child is sick, breaks an arm or requires a vaccination, he or she is taken to a doctor or hospital,
“If the child has been abused, then the welfare services are advised so they can investigate, take the child to safety and if necessary charge, prosecute or educate the abusers,
“So, if you know of an animal being abused, cruelly treated, neglected or has been abandoned, we can investigate and take any appropriate action, but if your animal needs treatment, vaccination or is sick, he or she needs to be taken to a private veterinarian,” said Meredith.
“We believe that caring people will fully understand why we insist that certain people do not receive subsidised veterinary assistance and this includes those who make money from breeding- especially breeding and selling dogs for hunting and fighting,
“As you can imagine, they are not truthful yet they expect to be able to exploit our kind hearts.”
Meredith said if someone arrives with a sick or injured animal, they will not be turned away, but the person may be billed and then sent to a private veterinarian once the animal has been stabilised.
She added that there are exceptions, such as sterilisation, which is a long-term solution.
“Requests for euthanasia will always be accommodated when an animal is suffering and to keep it alive would prolong the agony — especially in cases where there simply is no cure — we would put the animal out of its misery.”
