Survival of Animal Welfare Charity in Zimbabwe

March 2018

The "rains", our annual wet season, is a meaningful time for Zimbabweans, as workers try to get home, Kumusha, to their rural family and fields, to hoe and cherish the crops planted earlier. 

For us though, the Summer rains is a season that we see many stray dogs getting pregnant, and these brave little souls  have no access to regular food, just when they need it most. Rubbish bins are raided and litter distributed to the wind. Luckily we have had good rains, but things can be doubly tough if these strays have no water. Our Inspectors are constantly travelling to pick up these little rangy dogs, but only if they are still pregnant or we can locate their litter. So often, we get them to the SPCA just in time, and the pups are born almost on arrival. One little dog arrived due to a confiscation, with 8 pups that were obviously from large males, twice her size, and almost all had their tails cut off (I cannot use the word docked) and whoever performed this butchery needs to be charged for cruelty. Added to this, the little mum had a broken leg, and she is being kept confined and quiet to help her to heal.Her pups are spirited and have loads of fun playtime, and our man Answer has his time cut out running up and down with them, even with his bad knee. 

Today as we walked around the premises (with the GlobalGiving agents) a courageous young mum had just delivered 9, yes nine, little struggling, wriggling babies, and she was single-minded in her attentive care.  I cannot speak highly enough of our mongrels.  

We have also received many cats and kittens. Its now up to us to find as many good homes as we can. Wish us luck!

We were absolutely delighted when we found a home for our herd of 18 goats on a smallholding where they will be taken care of. The scene as we tackled and rucked, jousted and feinted the frisky nervous Billys and Nannys. We never gave up, and the pretty maids and their kids were loaded and immediately settled into the soft cushioned Toyota Venture that was to transport them to their new stony and interesting hillsides. The lads, all bravado and bristle had to make do with the SPCA van, and they fell upon all the mulberry leaves we had layered into the rickety cab. They arrived on the plot, all lying down, except for our nosey domineering Magic, King of the Pack. According to the farmer who has helped us so much, they settled quickly,  and we think that because they were relocated in a team, they gave each other confidence. For our part, to not have to find fodder for all these goats makes our lives a lot easier.

Anyone watching our sub project against Rabies will know that our objective was achieved, but we had some difficulty accessing vaccine. We are ready to go now, just waiting for the pretty much relentless rains to abate, and we head South to Chishakwe Village  and Rowa Village to vaccinate another 600 dogs. We love heading off to the rural regions to very poor but grateful communities that walk miles to get their dogs vaccinated or treated for trauma or illnesses. More pictures to follow on our next report.

Recenty we have sent 2 Inspectors to the West of Zimbabwe, to Bulawayo, to learn and assist on a Donkey Sanctuary Project. We are so very proud of our guys. They head off to a place they have likely never visited, with a blanket to sleep on and a tight budget to spend, and they send us amazing and cheery reports on all their new experiences.  There was/is a big move to create a donkey abbatoir in Bulawayo, but with public pressure, it has been halted for the meantime. Mutare SPCA threw their weight behind this effort. The move was all made by the China’s desire for the skin and fatty layer below the skin to be harvested for medicine. We have never had donkey abattoirs in the past, so it feels so wrong to us all. We would have loved to have gone with our 2 roving Inspectors, but the SPCA Mutare has several functions to keep the home fire burning.

Last week. we served teas at a produce market, and the community supported us well.  Our volunteer Keara baked glorious cakes which had people lining up to have a slice with their coffee. We sold a healthy number of our stunning stone birdbaths too, and we have two talks by guest speakers to help our fundraising efforts.

Tomorrow will be a precious day as we have a local school of 60 children coming to see the SPCA, and we hope to impress upon them how wonderful it is to have a dog or a cat in their lives.

Animal rescue centres always have a hard time surviving here, but one tragedy that runs in any African’s very soul is the demand, from China, for our baby elephants.  These babies are stolen from wild elephants, from the matriarchal families, (mostly in Hwange National Park,) and there must exist a collective mourning in the elephant herds. It’s generally accepted elephants do indeed grieve in their own way.  To us, it seems as if many of the historical and diverse rules, laws and ‘gentlemens agreements’ for relocation of wild animals for commercial reasons have been ignored. But it seems to me that translocation of African wildlife to zoos in China in this day and age, feels particularly tragic.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/06/secret-footage-obtained-of-the-wild-elephants-sold-into-captivity-in-chinese-zoos

https://qz.com/1142567/pangolin-trafficking-china-seized-record-haul-of-the-worlds-most-trafficked-mammal/

https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-04-12/chinese-eat-zimbabwe-s-endangered-wildlife

So is the situation hopeless? Absolutely not. We have a new President in Mr Emerson Mnangagwa.  We have renewed hope.  And we wait and see. Will the people be heard?

Animal Welfare Charities should have no interest or need for involvement in politics. But when lives and economies are destroyed, it’s in your face.  Let’s see how we do. What is sure, is that we will be active and vocal for ALL animals in our country. No more elephants to the Far East. No more Tortoises and Pangolins (the most traded animal in the World) , to China. AND when the countrymen of China come to harvest opportunities in our Zimbabwe, we expect them to respect the zeitgeist, the status quo, the spirit of our traditions, and our laws especially. And they may not eat our dogs and cats.   We would love them to visit our SPCA and see what we expect of dog and cat adoption.

THANK YOU.

The Volunteers of Mutare SPCA.

Links:

• WALK 500KMS FOR MUTARE SPCA? GET SPONSORS THROUGH GLOBAL GIVING