open letter

THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM A LETTER BETWEEN FRIENDS (names withheld)

In an ideal world, people would microchip their pets, . Every vet or shelter has a microchip reader.
At least put a collar and ID tag on them. All this would help to quickly reunite a stray with his owner and reduces the need for shelters. Only about 5% of pet owners take this precaution, and less than 10% of lost pets ever get reunited with their owners. The rest end up in shelters.

Will you please lobby the British and Australian Governments to scrap or modify their antiquated and inhumane quarantine laws causing such a lot of heartbreak, enabling emigrants to take their pets with them instead of offloading them at shelters to do the dirty work?

Animals are killed in the townships in the name of "cultural traditions"! Dogs and cats are skinned alive in China. The cruelty of cosmetics companies testing new products on the eyes of forcibly restrained rabbits.What happens to race horses once they have outlived their usefulness? What about dog fighting for "sport", prevalent mainly on the Cape Flats? The list is endless.
Don't blame shelter workers who have to kill because of the shortcomings of other people.

Please tell me what we should do to avoid killing shelter animals, because we are all animal lovers and hate to do this.

Does your charity start at home?

I visited a charity shop the other day and saw a notice asking for donations of animal food. I was wondering why they did not use the profits the sales of the free donations to buy animal food. It is then that someone told me that some charity shops are self employment agencies. I wonder if that new little car parked outside the shop was bought with charity money.

There is a website that teaches people how to run a charity in order to pay themselves a fat salary from the charity money.

Personally, I do not think there is anything wrong with working for charity as long as the charity benefits more than you do. There are quite a number of charities around where the organizers pay themselves first and I wonder how much is left from the monthly takings to pay their charity. It is very difficult to keep track of money going in and out when there is only one paid employee running the place.

I recently tried to contact someone who campaigned for money to help neglected animals, to find she was overseas. I am not saying she used the charity money for overseas trips. I do not know, but it could easily happen.

Perhaps we should encourage people to choose employment that will benefit those in need of help, but there should also be a system to protect employers from greed and exploitation.

Soon to be unloved

It is so sad to see peoples' loving pets being advertised for free because their owners' lifestyles changed and they can no longer love them.

Check out some soon to be unloved animals here:

http://capetown.gumtree.co.za/f-Classifieds-W0QQPageZ2QQPriceAlternativeZ3QQgalleryZtrue

Dunoon three day animal sterilization clinic

African Tails just completed a three day sterilization operation at Du Noon

In their newsletter they wish to thank Dr. Yvonne Robson from Sunnydale Animal Hospital,
Dr. Reena Cotton from Citi Vet, Dr. Duncan Siegfried and Dr. Susan Van Niekerk.
Please support their practices.
They also thank the Blaauwberg Animal Trust, Animal Rescue Organization and African Tails for generous donors and selfless volunteers.
They managed to sterilize over 110 dogs and several cats over a period of three days.


Here is a link to their website about saving our street dogs.
Smokie asked me to put their link on our blog.
Here it is.
http://www.africantails.co.za/default.aspx

CLICK HERE TO
VISIT
AFRICAN TAILS

Kittens for adoption

A man brought two twelve week old kittens to the shop. He needed advice on what to do with them. He said that someone dumped them next to the freeway.

The kittens were in a cage in his car. They were amazingly quiet. I got the impression that they were "pap"

When they saw me they started mewing and came to my side of the cage. I so wish I could have taken them. I love cats, but I know that I would not be able to pay their veterinary fees. Also we are planning to move in the near future. I do hope they find homes. The one is black with white paws and the other a gray tabby.