Botswana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA)

BSPCA Update: 2008
From Jenny Hayzelden, BSPCA Chair

It has been an incredibly busy year for the BSPCA.  The continued publicity had the desired result and the organization has become far more widely known than previously and has resulted in a massive increase in the number of calls for help and visitors to the Shelter.  The number of animals coming into the Shelter has increased dramatically, and of course this in itself brings its own problems.

Read the full Annual Report and find out how you can help!

The BSPCA's Objectives:

Typically in Botswana, dogs and cats are not held in high esteem. There has not been a history of 'pet ownership' as we understand it in many parts of the world. Dogs are often tied up all day; or alternatively left to roam; left without food, water, shade, and shelter; and provided with little care and exercise. They are rarely sterilized and produce unwanted puppies constantly - many of which meet an unpleasant end to dispose of them. If they fall sick they are rarely treated. Children often regard puppies and kittens as playthings, with no feelings. We hope through our contact with groups of children to teach them the 'joys' and value of pet ownership and proper care.

The BSPCA's main focus is to care for stray and unwanted animals in Gaborone by offering them a safe haven at the shelter, providing them with food, water, exercise, and love. The ultimate goal is to place all of our animals with permanent, loving families.

The BSPCA is attempting to provide humane education in schools and at the shelter to change perceptions and behaviors towards domestic animals.

The BSPCA has now got the first part of its "touch" farm up and running, which is being incorporated into their Education and Community Outreach Program. They have guinea pigs, rabbits, a goat and a sheep. Children can come to visit the animals and learn to handle them gently and watch while others treat them with respect and care in the hope they use this as a model for their own behavior. The BSPCA envisions the shelter as a place that children and their parents will look forward to visiting. It may be the first and only opportunity that many children will have to handle these animals and to see them treated with kindness and respect.

The humane education program also reaches out to the community. Volunteers visit local schools to discuss animal welfare with students and invite them to the Shelter. Interested children are also invited to form Animal Kindness Clubs so that they can plan projects that will benefit animals and the BSPCA.

The BSPCA is now hoping to raise funds to build a 'boma' - a covered area which will house two education areas and provide a place where prospective owners can 'meet' the animals they hope to adopt.

The BSPCA receives many phone calls from the public requesting assistance in cases where animals are injured or mistreated. In a country where cattle, goats, donkeys, etc. are seen wandering throughout the city, in times of drought many of the calls received are to attend to accidents involving these animals.

The BSPCA is the only domestic animal protection organization in Gaborone.

Support the BSPCA

The BSPCA built the shelter with funds raised over the first 14 years in operation. The funds were mostly raised within the country. Before the shelter was opened operating costs were low and the bulk of money raised was set aside for this purpose.

The BSPCA received a start-up grant from the First National Bank (FNB) Botswana for a Community Spay-Neuter Project. With this funding, the BSPCA equipped an on-site spay-neuter clinic so that veterinarians can sterilize animals on shelter premises prior to re-homing. Most important, from the on-site clinic, they can offer low-cost sterilization to needy families with pets.

The BSPCA has had several veterinarians visit from other countries and volunteer their time to spay, neuter and otherwise treat Botswana's animals in need, but we would like this to become a more regular event, as despite the generosity of the local veterinarians, the bills for treatment of the animals and for medicines is extremely high and eats into the meager resources raised.

World Society for the Protection and Care of Animals (WSPA) provided funding for the BSPCA's humane education program, and Humane Society International provided funds for the cattery.

The BSPCA receives no government funding, and all these efforts have been achieved with funds raised from memberships, fundraising events, donations and grants.

Daniel, the BSPCA Shelter Manager

Daniel started working for the BSPCA when the shelter was opened. He has a calm nature, and animals seem to feel immediate trust.

He has been with the BSPCA for four years, and is now the Shelter Manager, overseeing a further six staff. The BSPCA would like Daniel and the rest of the staff to get some professional training, in line with the training someone of his level and position would receive elsewhere. A typical Inspectors' course is pretty rigorous, and prepares them for working in the animal care and welfare field.

The BSPCA would love to have an Inspector seconded to Botswana to give Daniel and the rest of the staff - including the Executive Committee - the benefit of their experience.

GThe BSPCA hasn't yet advertised for an Inspector to spend time in Gaborone to train the staff. Anyone who can help identify an Inspector and come up with a good training plan please contact the Chairperson. Board and lodging would be provided but we would hope that travel would be provided by the home institute or the individual volunteer. However, we will eagerly raise funds through this web site and by other means to achieve this goal.

Additionally, we are in need of the following:

Mobile Surgery
Once our Vet and Inspector are in place we will immediately need access to a vehicle which can be converted into a moving surgery. Unless we go into the rural areas we will not be able to help the people and animals most in need of our support and as well as cats and dogs this includes donkeys and goats who get a very raw deal.

We are currently looking for quotes and finance for a second hand suitable vehicle and we will then need advice and finance to fit it out.

We additionally require help with the servicing of our Emergency Vehicle.

Additional Quarantine Kennels
Since we opened our quarantine kennels two years ago they have been constantly full. We currently have four kennels and we need to double the size to 8. These need to be slightly larger as we do occasionally have very large dogs coming in who become very stressed in the confined space currently available, particularly as they are not able to be walked until we are sure that they do not carry any communicable diseases and have been fully vaccinated.

Quotations are currently being prepared for us and funding will be required.

Extension to existing Quarantine Kennels
We wish to enlarge the existing quarantine kennel areas as these kennels are quite small and most of the animals coming into quarantine tend to be rather large. As they are in solitary confinement for 10-14 days and are therefore not exercised we would like to give them a little more space to avoid kennel stress. The cost of this will be P18,756.00.

New Kennels
When our existing 26 kennels were built the foundations were included for an additional 10 kennels if they were needed.

We wish to put up 10 new kennels. We are going to approach companies in Gaborone to ask them if they would like to sponsor the building of a kennel at a set cost. They will then get free advertising on that kennel for the life span of the kennel. As soon as they are built we will move one row of our current animals so that we can make improvements to them and make them more waterproof, as mistakes were made with the drainage. Once the repairs are completed we will then have 36 kennels and some of the ‘run’ areas which have been converted as temporary accommodation can be returned to their original usage.

Obviously, this will take some time and in the meantime we are totally full. The cost per kennel will be P7,600.00.

Surgery
We have an existing surgery. However it is presently very poorly equipped. Currently we use private vets to treat the Shelter animals and this is extremely costly and surgeries take place at their premises and result in loss of man hours and expensive transportation costs. Vets are able to visit the Shelter for 3 or 4 hours a week and therefore there are often delays in animals receiving the treatment they need. We do have a volunteer vet who uses her own equipment.

The equipment needed will not be available in Botswana and will need to be acquired from either South Africa, UK or USA.