David Macgregor
outreach team worked 12-hour days in Balfour and nearby Seymour, visiting homes to convince owners to take the plunge before collecting the dogs and delivering them home safely after the operation.
Led by NSPCA national senior inspector Vonny Strachan, several bakkies and dog trailers crisscrossed the dusty streets and hills collecting dogs for their team of veterinarians and helpers to treat, aschain sisted by Vets for Change volunteers. “We did a recce of the areas in April and told people about our plans to do an outreach and why it was important,” Strachan said.
“We also checked on the welfare of the dogs and gave people advice on how they could do things better.
“When we returned for the outreach some of the dogs’ condition had improved.”
During the latest visit, Strachan and King William’s Town SPCA field officer Dorah Mgandela showed dog owners how to properly their dogs with a swivel so they don’t become strangled on an ever-shortening leash, treat ailments using local plants and advised on diet improvement by adding household throwaways into their mielie meal.
Pensioner Albert Qolo, who uses his two healthy looking dogs to help look after his large goat herd and homestead, listened in amazement when he heard aloe leaf juice could be mixed with water to eradicate worms; khaki bush and Vaseline used to ward off flies; and that a khaki bush tea dip would repel ticks and fleas. Diluted salt helps treat wounds.
Qolo said he would also use the remedies to treat his 35 Boer goats and four Angora instead of trying to get costly antibiotics
Like most locals he still believed old engine oil could be used to treat mange, until Strachan explained heavy metals in modern derivatives poisoned their dogs. “I never knew any of this,” the 86 year-old explained.
“I am going to write a letter to [SPCA] head office thanking them for sending you here. You have helped me to much, I hope you can come again every year ... I have learnt a lot.”
Like most of his neighbours, Qolo has a vegetable patch and said he would use throwaway vegetables as a nutritional supplement.
According to NSPCA vet Dr Bryce Marock, not spaying or neutering dogs lead to a massive population explosion in rural areas – often with disastrous consequences.
He said a bitch came on heat from seven months old and could have two litters of eight puppies a year during her life.
Marock said studies revealed that one dog and her yearly litters combined with their offspring would produce 65 000 puppies over five years if they all survived.
“They also fight with other dogs and this can spread rabies with disastrous consequences.
“Most children who die from rabies are bitten by dogs.”
Although there is a high mortality rate among rural puppies, Marock said those that survived were more durable than their pampered suburban cousins after everything they had been through.
During the outreach, SPCA staff from Mthatha, Queenstown and King William’s Town sometimes came across some dogs who had been home-neutered to stop them roaming. “We found that 20% of the male dogs we treated had mostly been neutered with a knife or sometimes an elastic band,” Strachan said. “We heard kids just cut them with a knife.”
Besides treating 350 dogs, the team tended to problems with cats, donkeys, horses and other livestock.
The Daily Dispatch attended the outreach programme as a guest of the NSPCA. — davidm@dispatch.