Pretoria - The Centurion SPCA is calling on all animal lovers to remember to assist and protect their animals in times of emergency like fires, flooding and accidents.
This follows the fire incident in Cemetery View informal settlement where a dog’s face was burnt severely during an inferno that destroyed at least 400 shacks.
What most people do not know is that after fires and other natural disasters, officials from the SPCA visit the affected areas to check if there are animals in need of assistance.
Inspector Serra Gouriet said they visited Plastic View and Cemetery View informal settlements in the past after some fires but it was only recently that they found dogs that were injured and in need of assistance.
They found one dog with unmissable burns on its face and two others with minor injuries, one from the fire, the other was caused by a dog fight.
The dog with face burns could not be saved because it also suffered internal injuries. They had to put it down after doing everything they could to save its life.
“It was tough but we had to put our emotions aside and put it to sleep. It can never be a good experience because we love animals and we love keeping them safe and alive,” said Gouriet.
With the community under distress and worried about rebuilding their wood-and-plastic shacks, finding food and replacing their torched blankets and beds, it was hard to find the owner of the dog.
The people know the dogs and see them straying around and eating whatever is available in the congested settlement, but often do not know their names and their owners, except that the dogs are part of the community.
Gouriet and her colleagues took the other two other dogs, a male and a female, estimated to be 3 years old, and put them on treatment for their injuries.
She said it was important for people keeping dogs in such environments to ensure that the dogs are not chained because they need to be able to escape should a fire break out.
Cemetery View resident Ike Ndlovu and the owner of the other two dogs, who asked not to be named, said it was good for the SPCA to intervene when it did, because the people were more concerned about their own survival and that of their children at that stage.
Ndlovu said: “What the SPCA have done is a beautiful thing, and to be honest, we really do not need dogs here. This place is too small and it is prone to fires. We hear that another dog died with its puppies during the fire. So you can see that we definitely do need the guidance of the SPCA. We appreciate their involvement.”
Pretoria News