Animal Welfare South Africa Project #54249

Rescue, Rehab and Re-home Street Dogs in Africa

by Action Change (Formerly GVI Trust)

Project Report | Mar 8, 2022
Rescue Update: Meet Our Pitball Dani

By Richelle the Butterfly | Project Director

Dani before her life changed

Dear Supporters,

Working across South Africa our team are very well known and that is why we was not surprised to get a call from onne of our vets asking us to help a man and his pitball.

The owner, a police officer was given our contact details for help with medical bills as his puppy needed urgent and critical surgery as he accidentally hit her with his car causing a bad break in her leg. We then said we will help and waited for him to call us, he did, he is a police officer and after explaining we would assist to raise the funds, as he had a big family and no funds, but that he would need to agree for us to sterilize her as well, this is the main part of our project to stop breeding and the number of dogs on the streets, he got very aggressive and said no he wants to breed with her. Luckily she was in the care of our vets then he called the vet and got aggressive with her on the phone too, making threats and said he wants his dog now and she explained she cannot as a vet that has taken an oath release a dog in her condition, knowing she will be dragging herself around unable to walk and be in her own urine and faeces, this didn't faze him, he said he didn't care, he wants her and he will breed with her, so the vet called our amazing project manager and she said according to the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962, it's negligence especially denying her veterinary treatment, so securing our legalities Dani will not be released back to the owner, who is a police officer and should know the law and we will now undertake to save her life and after surgery and rehab, find her a fur'ever home.

With your donations we was able to respond quickly to this emergency and fund the initial surgery for Dani, a few weeks later she found her future partner and owner while at the vets. A local community member that volunteers at the vets and works closely with us feel in love with Dani and so after surgery we begain the adoption process and Dani was re-homed with her new owner who has taken on her ongoing treatment. We spoke with her owner last week and he sent us this update we wanted to share with you....

"I tried my best to save her leg. Some days I had to change her bandage 4 times because her nerves in her foot bothered her so badly that one day she chewed down her middle toe, it was barely right then she also got her other toe and chewed it off a bit too. Lots of bandages and a few thousand rands later and after a lot of tests I made the hardest decision ever in my life to amputate her leg. Many tears later she is now a tripod and very happy, Dr Duandri who did her surgery, confirmed that the nerve in her leg was almost completely dead and that's why she tried to chew and gnaw at her leg all the time. Her other hind leg gets very heavy and we are now trying to save it with swimming and physio. Long slow process, because her other leg has already bent so badly and skewed. But we keep going until she lets me know she can no longer."

Another success story made possible because of your donations!

We thank you

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Jan 24, 2022
A Shocking Story of Neglect

By Richelle the Butterfly | Project Leader

Ragnar and Max -The Rescued Puppies

Last week our outreach team headed into a local township in South Africa to offer free vaccinations for Distemper as we have seen an alarming outbreak. If a dog contracts distemper the local authorities remove the dogs and put them down and the owners simply go out and get another dog and don't learn.

Therefore our outreach team is visiting the sites weekly to educate the locals and ensure we break this cycle. Offering a free vaccination also allows us to manage the alarming number of street dogs as we offer free care on the condition we sterilise their dog too, which we also fund through donations. This way we can help limit the number of puppies being born and left on the streets.

We love our program and the results are amazing as this is week 10 and it is the first time we had no deaths reported and no cases found of Distemper - success down to our team and you the donors that fund this amazing work!

Sadly towards the end of our session we got reports of a neglected dog and so Maxine and I went to explore and I couldn't believe what we found. A poor dog was left in a dirty backyard with nothing, no owner in sight but we reported the location to the police and rescued him immediately.

Named Ragnar, he literally was at death's door when we rescued him, I mean no dog can survive in that state. Admitted with our pawsome vets. Ragnar has now been discharged but not out of the woods at all. The scans show he has two foreign objects in his abdomen, from eating stones or rubbish, so our vets induced vomiting to see if it would come out, but it didn't, so now the only hope is he can pass them naturally and that it doesn't cause complications of any kind because he cannot be operated on in his state. So he is at the haven now, enjoyed a cool down in the little shell pool and loves his kennel.

My heart drops for this boy, because after all he has been through he is still wagging his tail, and he gives the best kisses. Sitting with him and cuddling him is medicine to my soul because I just cannot explain how amazing Ragnar is and that he factually is a living walking miracle.

We however have our rehab and treatment work cut out for us, he gets so out of breath just from standing and eating that he seems to get dizzy and falls over again. But it doesn't matter, whatever it takes, however long it takes, we will do everything to give Ragnar the best second chance in life, he not only deserves it but has earned it!

On a brighter note, remember Max? The first puppy this project rescued was neglected and kept turning up at our township school. Well he is now adopted looking super healthy and has such loving new owners. The photo above shows Ragnar when we found him, Ragnar when released to us and Max in his new home.

Your donations are working so hard and really are life changing. We have an uphill fight on our hands but the passion of our team and your incredible donations means we will not give up!

Thank you,

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Oct 13, 2021
Your donations are making Max Happy!

By Tyrone Bennett | CEO / President

Renamed Max he now has 2 adoption applications

Dear Supporters,

I know this is a new project and so fundraising has only just started but WOW we have kicked off with a bag! You might remember reading that this project came about when a black and white pitball was left outside by the family as he wouldn't fight. Contacting the government authorities their only plan was but put him to sleep,

We refused and set to work to partner with other local indidivuals that helped this project launch, after the second donation we was able to fund a rescue package and I went to pick him up. it was clearly his first time in a car and I had to help him in and he was very scared. I took him shopping to buy food, water and everything he needed along with a couple of toys and blankets that he could call his own. I then took him to a park to help him understand a new surrounding, he was very scared and we sat on the grass together just over an hour before he got of my lap and then started to enjoy and play on grass.

From here I took him to his foster family and he has been there 3 weeks now, he's had a session with a dog behaviourist and seen our vet that has helped us manage his food diet to bring hhim back to health and given him a good grooming. We now have 2 applications for adoption and everyone has fallen in love with him, such a gentle boy he is good with other dogs and cats so his future is bright.

Thank you to everyone who donated, the team are now getting requsts to rescue over 60 dogs every day and so we really hope with your help we can start to ramp up our project. I am really excited to be involved with this project and we hope you can help spread our work so we can get some monthly regular donors to help us keep rescuing, rehabilitaing and re-homing these much loved puppies.

All the best,

Tyrone

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