WATCH: Free pet sterilisation welcomed

It's a school day when inspectors Angie Stanbridge and Rob Richmond from the Animal Welfare Society of South Africa (AWS SA) are met by Elsies River residents at New Mews Complex in Leonsdale.

The residents - some of them young adults, others children - are eager to sign up their dogs and cats for sterilisation.

AWS SA recently embarked on a mass animal sterilisation project, sponsored by The Rolf Stephan Nussbaum Foundation and Euromonitor International.

The project was started in commemoration of International Homeless Animals Day on August 18.

Dog owner Wilfred Pieters places his puppy, “Pot Doom”, on the bonnet of the AWS SA vehicle and explains that he wants to have his dog sterilised to prevent disease and unwanted puppies.

Once the pup is in the trailer, Pieters lingers in front of the cage and reaches out to touch the puppy through the bars.

The project aims to sterilise a minimum of 390 pets in Elsies River and Mitchells Plain. Picture: Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

Above the noise of dogs barking frantically and residents’ laughter and conversation, Stanbridge fills out forms while Richmond rounds up dogs and cats, labels them and puts them into cages.

The unit then moves on, signing up and loading patients into the trailer at every stop. This is a three-step process, with patients being operated on the following day (after collection) and returned to their owners two days later.

Twenty-one patients are collected, and a couple of hours later, the team are on their way back to the AWS SA premises, where the pets are placed into cages in preparation for their sterilisation procedures.

The head of communications and resource development for AWS SA, Allan Perrins, said the goal of the mass animal sterilisation project was to sterilise a minimum of 390 pets in Elsies River and Mitchells Plain, owned predominantly by indigent members of the community.

The head of communications and resource development for AWS SA, Allan Perrins, said the goal of the mass animal sterilisation project was to sterilise a minimum of 390 pets in Elsies River and Mitchells Plain, owned predominantly by indigent members of the community. Video: Tracey Adams / African News Agency (ANA)

Perrins cited pet overpopulation in the vast majority of the Cape metro area, as well as backyard breeding, as the main reasons for the project, which involves humane sterilisation of the animals.

Perrins added that sterilisation of pets which have owners goes a long way to addressing the problem of stray animals.

The benefits are confirmed by Dr John McMullen, the AWS SA vice-chairperson and chief veterinarian, ín the AWS SA booklet Teaching Today’s Kids About Animal Welfare.

“By spaying and neutering just one male and female cat, more than 2 000 unwanted births can be prevented in just four years - and more than 2 million in eight years,” McMullen wrote.

If anyone would like to donate, please contact Perrins on 021 692 26 26/078 631 5126 or [email protected]