The NSPCA is making a heartfelt appeal to car hire companies or corporates willing and able to sponsor or assist the society to subsidise car hire.
“This may sound like an unusual request from an animal welfare organisation.
“Yet the reality is that valued income has to be spent on the hiring of vehicles to enable essential work to be undertaken,” said Christine Kuch, public relations officer for the NSPCA.
To give but one example, the NSPCA’s Animal Ethics Unit’s key focus area is to replace the use of animals for research, teaching and training wherever possible, as well as reducing the number of animals used for research where feasible, and to refine the experimental methods and procedures to ensure the most humane treatment possible for animals in research environments.
This involves serving on animal ethics committees.
During 2016, a total of 164 ethics committee meetings were attended and NSPCA staff serve on 43 such committees.
This is in addition to inspections at facilities where research on animals is undertaken.
Travelling from the NSPCA’s Gauteng base is necessary to do so and this is where the appeal for donated or sponsored car hire comes in.
“The usual requirement would be for a single day or at most for two consecutive days,” explained Kuch.
“With careful planning and budgeting of time and costing, air travel can be more economical than driving long distances.
“But then we have the factor of needing transport at the destination.”
Emergency situations also arise when, for the sake of speed, staff travel by air to assist animals and need a vehicle to take them to the scene once at the destination.
“If we can reduce or eliminate these costs, it would make a huge difference.
“We are happy to provide detailed motivation and explanations to anyone willing to consider this request.
“Finance for this purpose is a genuine need.
“The NSPCA has approached car hire companies without success but maybe there is someone out there willing and able to make our wish for 2017 come true.”
Anyone wishing to assist can contact Kuch via email pr@nspca.co.za or by calling 011 907-3590.
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