Following an incident reported by a Stellenbosch student about a puppy selling syndicate going around for years, aforementioned student Nicole Golits, reached out to the wider Stellenbosch community.
Golits warned students that the syndicate is now not only trying to sell students puppies, but turning to pickpocketing their targets while distracted by the dogs. Golits was encouraged to get in touch with the HART (Helderberg Animal Rescue Team) foundation, which deals with rescuing puppies.
HART is a non-profit organisation aimed at doing animal outreach work in rural and township communities as well as providing guidance and proper animal care to pet owners.
Golits was targeted by young men with little puppies outside the Catwalk/Cubana area. She explains that the puppies looked skinny and unhealthy. She was willing to pay for three out of five puppies the men had. She then noticed that they were trying to steal her purse and cell phone from her handbag.
“It is very sad, but I guess these things happen around us all the time and one only takes notice when it happens to them,” says Golits.
Louise Spagnuolo, founder of HART and dog manager, commented about the incident that occurred with Golitz. “Selling of puppies on the streets are not new. There is a market for Stellenbosch students and it has been going on for years.”
A litter of nine puppies were taken to foster home care and were dewormed in one of HART’s outreach programmes earlier this week. PHOTO: Caira Blignaut
The organisation has been running for five years and is purely volunteer-based with the goal of vaccinating and sterilising mostly dogs and cats in less fortunate communities.
The foundation caters for those who cannot always afford exorbitant veterinary fees that come with animal care.
“We have three sterilisations per month. At these sterilisations we have numbers ranging from about 12- 20 animals per day that get sterilised. So that’s around 60 cats and dogs a month,” says Amber Hammond, cat and kitten manager of HART.
HART also has outreach programmes set up for every second Sunday of the month where deworming of animals cost around R80 per animal. Adoption days of animals also happen every Sunday at Pet World.
Spagnuolo explains that during kitten season, which usually starts in August, foster families volunteering to take care of the animals brought in by HART increase from the usual 30 families volunteering to much more because of the influx of kittens that are rescued during peak kitten season times.