Rather adopt than shop, says SPCA

Date: 27 October 2018 By: Jo Robinson

The Louis Trichardt SPCA is encouraging people to adopt an animal rather than buying or accepting a “free to good” home one.

The SPCA’s Lesley Gaigher shared her thoughts on the subject with the Zoutpansberger, as well as some of her motivation to do the work that the SPCA staff and volunteers continue to do for animals. “Rescue,” she says, “is not just a word, it’s a promise.”

Lesley explains that acting on the feeling that you have been called to help animals means that you will experience a rollercoaster ride of emotions every day. “Wait, no!” she says, “from one minute to the next. Unless you’ve spent some time volunteering at an animal shelter, you will not comprehend the highs, so exhilarating that you feel like you can fly, when a broken soul is mended and finally adopted to a home fully deserving of that awesome animal’s unconditional love. But the down side is that your heart will break over and over again.”

Lesley says that she has heard many people saying that they could not bear to visit the SPCA; that their hearts would not be able to handle it. She urges people to make the effort to do just that, though … to visit the SPCA to adopt their new pet, even if it hurts not to be able to rescue all of them. One is help enough. “Can you imagine how those animals must feel, looking out?” she asks. “Hoping that maybe this time they will be the chosen one and be rescued, taken home, and loved…”

Lesley points out that not thinking about the sad statistics and hoping that other people will choose to adopt at the SPCA while you go to a breeder to pick out your new puppy or take that “free to a good home” kitten from a Facebook post might be easy. You may ask yourself what difference the one animal you take makes in the bigger picture. But, that breeder will probably breed again, she says, and that cat’s owners will not bother to have her sterilized because it was so easy to find homes for the previous litter. 

The SPCA urges residents to sterilise their kittens and puppies at the right time, rather than allowing their inaction to add to the problem of overpopulation. Lesley says that, due to unscrupulous breeding, the scales have tipped and that way more animals than good homes for them to go to currently exist. “The fact is,” she says, “when you decide to adopt an animal, you save more than just the one life you take responsibility for. Because the animal will be sterilized on the SPCA’s account, there will never be unwanted litters. Because you have freed up a space in the kennel, there will be another one we would be able to give more time to find that perfect home for him or her.”

Lesley would like to remind residents to come to the SPCA’s auction on 2 November as advertised in the Zoutpansberger again this week. Finally, she shares a little bit of inspiration by Loren Eisley. “One day, a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a young boy picking something up and throwing it into the ocean. Approaching the boy, he asked, ‘What are you doing?’ The youth replied, ‘Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up, and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they will die.’ ‘Son’, the man said, ‘don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference.’ After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the surf.  Then, smiling at the man, he said: ‘I made a difference to that one.’”

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Jo Robinson

Jo joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2018 pursuing a career in journalism after many years of writing fiction and non-fiction for other sectors.

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