Knysna Animal Welfare Society faces desperate times

Last month, 120 animals were surrendered to the Knysna Animal Welfare Society (KAWS), mainly owing to the fact that their owners could not afford to feed them any more.

This marked the highest number of surrenders ever in the 70 years the organisation has been in operation.

In addition, the nonprofit organisation which is the equivalent to SPCAs in other towns, is staring at bankruptcy since it has not received its municipal grant for two years.

The animal welfare society is also grappling with the indiscriminate breeding of dogs that cannot be curbed as sterilisation cannot be enforced by the organisation.

There was a time when the society was able to give indigent people food for their animals, but there is very little money for that now.

Various outreaches into the poorer community to sterilise, vaccinate and deworm, and to help people care for their animals, from building fences to supplying kennels, are no longer affordable.

The bills mount and savings dwindle. KAWS chair Cobri Vermeulen has been part of the organisation for 20 years.

She said the total monthly costs amounted to R350,000 for everything from food to medical supplies, veterinary care and staff costs.

Presently, there are 50 dogs and 30 cats in its kennels.

Owing to a lack of space and adoptions, many of these animals will have to be euthanised.

As KAWS is the designated local pound of the Knysna Municipality, the municipality is responsible for taking the corpses of euthanised animals to the landfill site in Mossel Bay, but they are apparently not doing that either.

“KAWS must foot this bill of driving to Mossel Bay to fulfil this task,” Vermeulen said.

The only reason the society is still afloat, according to vicechair Debbie Davies, is because of donations.

Last year, it received R700,000 through bequests, but this year it only received a small amount.

The society has been in meetings with the municipality since 2020 and says they get bounced from one person or department to another.

The KAWS premises has been in Hunter’s Home for 71 years, but the municipal lease expired at the end of last year.

“Since KAWS acts as the municipal pound with 24-hour access for the public to drop off strays and surrender animals, a written agreement was in place to ensure a yearly municipal grant was given to KAWS.

“Despite this, there has been no funding since June 2020,” Vermeulen said.

KAWS also offered to act as the authorising agent for the municipality in the proposed new bylaw on the keeping of dogs.

There has, however, been no municipal response to this request.

In the meantime, KAWS does what it can to raise funds.

There are 13,000 followers on their Facebook page and a campaign called Club 101 has been started.

A detailed list of questions was sent to the municipality a week ago.

A short response was received yesterday, with no details of how or when the municipality would assist KAWS.