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Shortly after the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality announced that a plan has been put in place to keep roaming animals off the street, the needs of more animals are being met with a donation of more than R105 000 made to the local SPCA.
The NMBM recently handed over an amount of R105 000, raised by the Senior Professional Golf Tour of South Africa, to the metro’s only SPCA.
The donation would not only be useful to animals currently at the facility but would also help take care of stray animals that needed to be taken to the pound while the process to house stray cattle on commonage around the metro was underway.
In a previous article written by PE Express, MMC for Public Health in the metro, Lance Grootboom, said that they had identified commonage around the metro – which is land that belongs to the municipality – and will soon engage with small scale farmers to allow their cattle to roam on this land.
Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, said that this donation followed a call that was done at the beginning of this year for all residents and private businesses to support the SPCA with its needs.
“This is the gesture of the Senior Professional Golf Tour of South Africa to say thank you to charity and I’m so happy to be handing over the cheque to the SPCA because the most important thing is that there must be a coexistence between people and the environment.
“The same care that we provide for our residents is also needed by animals. For instance, some of these animals need to be adopted and taken care of by us as human beings,” Bhanga said.
“I’m here to make this contribution and ensure that they continue doing this great work of looking after our animals,” he said.
“I’m so moved by the kind of work I have continuously seen being done by the SPCA here, also ensuring that the pound is operational and meets all the required standards from the limited resources that they have.
“It is also so humbling to note that when we make a call to our communities, they listen and answer.”
The SPCA chairperson, Deirdre Swift, shared words of gratitude and mentioned that this is history in the making since the SPCA had never ever been nominated as a beneficiary of a council-run fund-raising event before.
“This donation is absolutely phenomenal and we are so, so grateful to the executive mayor for his unwavering support and commitment to support the SPCA.
“It is greatly appreciated. With this R105 000 we will be able to pay the vet and medical supplies for the animals.
“It is a great relief for us,” she said.
Bhanga vowed to monitor an amount of R700 000 that has been allocated to Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s public health directorate to revamp the SPCA facilities in the 2021/’22 budget.
He also encouraged members of the public who happen to come across stray animals, especially the domestic ones, to take them to the nearest vet or Animal Welfare Society so that they can be transferred to the SPCA.
