Personal message

In the early hours of 27 March at 12:15am in the morning, Inspector Theo Mokgatle received a call from the Rabie Ridge SAPS informing him that a member of public reported a box with 6 dogs in, that had been dumped in an abandoned area in Austin view.

Inspector Mokgatle asked for the exact address and Constable Sithole requested that they meet at the station as he would send an escort with the inspector as the area where the dogs were dumped is not safe. 4 police officers escorted our inspector to the area, but unfortunately only one dog could be caught that morning.

Inspector Mokgatle has been trying daily ever since to catch the dogs, feeding them daily and giving them water to slowly gain their trust. On 6 April, our General Manager, Pam Pretorius joined Inspector Mokgatle in another effort to catch the remaining dogs. She patiently sat with food in her hand and one by one they managed to catch the dogs. Some of the dogs crawled underneath a fence so Pam braved the fence and had to crawl underneath it as well until we had 5 of the 6 dogs safely in our care. 

WHY DID IT TAKE 10 DAYS?

Our inspector’s equipment works very hard daily to help a number of animals in various situations. Our equipment gets damaged and on the rare occasion, has been stolen. It has taken us 10 days to catch 5 out of the 6 dogs due to not having the proper equipment on hand.

While we are elated that these dogs are now safe and out of harm’s way, it has taken a lot of time and prevents our inspectors from responding to other emergencies timeously. We unfortunately do not have the funds available to replace their damaged equipment and please need your help in raising R10 000. This is a big ask, but if we did have all the equipment that we needed, we could possibly have caught these dogs in a day and spent 9 other days assisting other animals that were also in need.

Why only 5 out of 6 dogs you may ask?

Unfortunately during the course of the 10 days, 1 of the dogs went missing from the site, it is uncertain if someone picked the dog up, whether it ran away or whether it got injured or even died, but after a long search, we could not find the missing dog. Again, if we had the right equipment available, this dog may now also have been safely in our care.

It is vitally important that the inspectors are fully equipped for any emergency situations in order to assist the animals at hand and as soon as possible.

Below is a list of items that we need

• 2 x flash lights
• 2 x first aid kits
• 2 x equipment boxes
• 2 x 30m rope
• Side cutters and pliers
• 2 new nets, transport crates and trap cage.

It would be greatly appreciated if anyone could assist with any of these items or a donation can be made towards the purchase of the required equipment.

We would like to thank the member of public who reported this incident to the SAPS and to Constable Sithole and his colleagues for ensuring the safety of our staff and for running around in the early hours of the morning to help us catch these dogs.

Thank you to Inspector Mokgatle and our General Manager for your patience and daily care of these animals. Although it took 10 days of patience, you never gave up on these dogs until they were safely caught.

Donations