SPCA battles to keep its doors open
The Brakpan SPCA is in deep financial turmoil and only has enough funds to sustain it until the end of March.
The local society has a staff complement of seven and only one vehicle that attends to the whole of the Brakpan area.
According to Brakpan SPCA manager Ming Church, on average the SPCA handles 346 animals a month.
“We currently only receive a government grant for stray animals that are in our care,” said Church.
“Ninety-six of the 346 animals handled in a month are strays.
“Unfortunately the remaining animals are covered by the SPCA and the generous donations from the public.”
Some of the expenses include vaccinations, sterilisations, euthanasia, medical treatments, pet food, staff salaries, water and lights accounts, and petrol and vehicle maintenance costs.
To try and alleviate some of the financial pressures, the SPCA has a shop that sells second-hand goods.
Read: SPCA jumble shop moves to town
Street collections and fund-raisers are held when volunteers are available – all to try generate funding to cover a portion of the running costs.
“This in itself is not proving to be profitable,” said Church.
The Brakpan SPCA is always grateful for the donations of food and blankets from the public, but this does not alleviate the running costs of the SPCA.
The SPCA deals with every type of animal as well as every aspect of animal welfare, including ritual slaughters.
Should the facility have to close down, members of the community would have to go to other animal shelters or SPCAs for assistance.
There would be nobody to collect the stray dogs and the community would have nowhere to take their unwanted dogs, cats, puppies, kittens and other animals.
“We need you, our supporters, to help us keep the doors open and continue to help the voiceless,” said Church.
“We will fight until the very end. The animals are all that matter and deserve us all to fight for them, but this is a battle we cannot fight alone.”
If you can help, contact the SPCA on 011 742 2007 or send an email to manager@brakpanspca.co.za
• Street collection
Volunteers will be stationed at the Mall@Carnival robots, at the intersection of Airport Drive and Athlone Avenue, tomorrow morning (Saturday) to collect funds for the Brakpan SPCA.
Residents are urged to support the fund-raiser.
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