Tragic plight of domestic animals in small-town townships countrywide

Festive Season

Hiya!

So the end of the year is upon us, time for chilling and having fun!

Relaxation and party time J! CLAWS is doing the last sterilisation drive for the year on 21 and 22 November 2011.

CLAWS is helping to make the season more bearable for a few animals out there!

Our 'impossible' target of sterilising 500 animals in one year is short of 50…

If you would like to be part of the very impressive achievement as a sponsor please feel free to make a donation no matter how small to CLAWS J to help us achieve this goal!

This will be preventing 480 000 unwanted pups and kittens!

Thank you for your help have a beautiful day

May Love Peace and Happiness surround you forever

Team CLAWS

 

Note from the Chairperson September 2011

Hello All and Thank you
We had great success with the last sterilisation drive!
Thank you to all our volunteers for your help and care we would not have been able to do this without your help.
Thank you to the
Freemasons for letting us use the Masonic lodge for the sterilisation drive, it was a great success!

Thank you to VETSOL, Daggie and Charl for doing a great job and many, many sterilisations and castrations. The volunteers and people in town had seen them on 50/50 the volunteers felt like the job was even more important. Working with famous people adds a bit extra. With the help of some energade and coffee the opp's went very well. Even with the bad smells and fat dogs everyone was still smiling J

Thank you to Nat for coming out all the way from CT to help us out in Clanwilliam, Surely our finest member. Nat is a very bus and very hard working and she always makes time to come up and help us out with the sterilisation drive. Nat is the most reliable person I know and she has never let CLAWS down. Nat once again helped us out with blankets for the drive and tags for the patients - Thank you! Nat was the vets extra hand. On the second night she said she'd seen enough testicles! We appreciate all your help and all your efforts, even when you are busy with major work you are still in Clanwilliam. A superwoman, Keep smiling Nat, happy you had some fresh clothes in the car!
Thank you to Venessa and Lizette for handling the entrance and filling in the books for the patients. Through mad rushes and people who couldn't speak or know who they were or their own numbers she kept her cool and handled everything. Up early and at the lodge before the rest of us, opening up and ready for action all three days. Thanks to Venessa I always knew where my phone and car keys were! Venessa also made all the necessary phone calls to the owners and arrangements for the day to run smoothly. Thank you.
Thank you to Lizette and Dawie for helping to carry and drive patient to the surgery and home when possible, it was a great help.

Thank you to Anton for helping to lift all the heavy gear and set up the lodge. Your help is much appreciated and without you we would not have had the place sorted as well as we did. The cleaning and setting up was done on the Wednesday before. Thank you to you and Lynn for doing the lunch on day one too!

Thank you to Cheryl for all her support and popping in to offer a kind word of encouragement when needed. Thank you to Joseph for helping to lift the heavy gear and taking time off your lunch break to help us.

Thank you to the Oudrif staff, Jacolien, Marinda, Leesie and Wendy you did a great job. Thank you for not always running away when your stomachs turned!

Thank you to Bill, Venessa and Jacolien that got bitten trying to help catch the mad 'worsie'! I hope the wounds heal quickly. I think we did a great job and I'm proud to be part of CLAWS with people like you to make it work and achieve the best results possible. Thank you Bill for driving the patients on your first day off from work in September, it is appreciated and it made a big difference, thank you for letting me use your car.

Thank you to Maria and Giel for helping us out and I hope you both had enough to eat while you helped us out. Thank you for helping us clean up and pack up at the beginning and at the end of the day.

I was hoping to sterilise 500 animals in one year but we have reached a 400 mark so far. At this Drive we sterilised 102 animals!
I am happy to work with and in an organisation that works well together and gets things done and not just talk about it. Thank you for a good year and I'm glad we achieved what we have in 2011.
The work we have done had made a huge difference in the lives of many animals in Clanwilliam that is what is important
May Love, Peace and Happiness surround you always.

Our Future

Teaching them to care

MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY?

CLAWS Clanwilliam Animal Welfare Society raises funds to organise mass sterilisation drives in the Clanwilliam Area.

We do not have a full time vet in Clanwilliam and we do not have a state vet in Clanwilliam and we rely solely on donations for funding.

We are aiming to sterilise 500 animals in one year, so far in 6 months we have sterilised 244! The next sterilisation drive is in September and we are aiming to sterilise another 110 animals!

To fund this project we sell second hand goods at the end of the month on the streets of Clanwilliam, second hand books at the farms stall and clothes on the neighbouring farms.

If you are able to help us reach our goal with a donation of good second hand clothes or goods, please contact us and we will arrange to collect it from you. We are also in need of blankets, collars, leads, dog food and volunteers!

Thank you for your help! Have a Beautiful day J

Jeanine Mitchell Chairperson CLAWS

MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY

 Sponsor A Spay Today…

 

Help the Clanwilliam Animal Welfare Society reduce the number of sick, hungry and abused dogs and cats in this area by making a donation towards our next mass sterilisation drive this September.

MASS STERILISATION DRIVES

CLAWS: Working to increase the sum of animal happiness!

Steri-Drive Success!!!

Mon 23 Tue 24 and Wed 25 May we had another sterilisation drive!
We had sterilised and vaccinated in total 98 animals.
Thank you to all members for your help! Without you we would not have managed to achieve this effective event.
On Sunday afternoon the setting up began, Bill, Jacolien, Anton, Johanna, Venessa, Marinda, Liesel, Chena and Charlene all went into Clanwilliam to start the big clean up set up operation. Not one of them actually live in Clanwilliam but they all came to help. They cleaned and scrubbed and fixed and patched and virtually transformed the show grounds into a make shift surgery. I was told that any dust to be seen would have been sterilised tooJ. Thank you team you did great! Thank you to you all who gave your valuable time on Sunday to come in to town to help with the start up. Sunday evening Natalie arrived at Oudrif with her bag of surprises. We thought that when we got there on Monday morning with six cats from the farm, all we had to do was put on the heaters and electric blankets and start.
Monday morning it was raining, those of us that came in from the farms were quite wet. The roads were wet with the first rains for the winter which made driving interesting. The hall was lovely and wet too, besides the hall being so big it leaked like a sieve! The holes in the roof were not small and we ran out of buckets, but we managed it and we had no electricity problems. Natalie brought 20meters of fleece with paw prints on to send home with the animals so they would sleep warm this winter. Natalie, Lynn and Anton Ferreira donated their electric blankets to keep the patients warm after surgery. The first day we sterilised 40 animals, Daggie and Charl were fresh and ready. Daggie once again proved that no mission is impossible, injecting feral cats that jump 8ft in the air to scratch you face, no problem! Natalie whipped out her second surprise she had ordered 100 luminous orange name tags for the patients ones that not even the big puppies were able to remove with their teeth. Venessa and Marinda took over the reception table and did the best job I've ever seen when it comes to keeping a record of everything that came in and out of the front door! Venessa was also ready to drive and fetch anything we needed. She had organised food and hot drinks too, this much needed sustenance kept us going. Anton helped to drive and pick-up and drop of animals that needed to be dropped and fetched. Natalie also had T-shirts printed for the team involved! Team CLAWS! The team was too busy on Monday and we forgot about the t's… At the end of the day, we packed up and setup for Tuesday morning.
Tuesday the roads were rivers, we had a slip and slide drive to Clanwilliam and when we got there Venessa had opened up again and Cheryl had fed the vets a good breakfast to prepare them for the day. There was more rain and more water to deal with but no vet or patients got wet, in fact the patients were so comfy and warm they did not want to go home form there warm heated recovery beds. We had extra help on Tuesday and the whole team was kitted out in their team CLAWS t-shirts- they looked great! Bill came in to help which lightened the load; he was on Heavy Dog Duty. Inside we had Natalie at the vet's table to assist where needed and Charlene, Chena and Jacolien at the patients every need. Bill went to fetch Mr Dale Morgan to show him what we were accomplishing. He was quite surprised to see the conditions under which we had to work and even went home to fetch his camera. He said there should be more money and privileges coming our way soon J the paper didn't pitch again. Thank you to those of you who did come to help us even though it rained. Thank you Cheryl for letting the vet's take over your kitchen we really appreciate you going the extra mile to make them feel comfortable and at home! They loved it! Thank you! Leesie and Charlene made great coffee!

Wednesday morning Team CLAWS gathered again, I was late with a load of animals but we quickly caught up and the vets were happy and settled. Lizette had managed to drive in to town on Wednesday morning when the rain had stopped and was able to come lend a hand again. We also had two strong young men arrive to help with Heavy Dog Duty, Thank you Rudi and Jacques It was much appreciated. Thank you! Once again Venessa had sandwiches for every need, vegan, vegetarian whatever your need! Natalie had to leave her post and let Lizette take over as she has a deadline and really is too busy to be here. She had jobs in CT and London to be done but she stayed in Clanwilliam to help us out – Thanks Nat! Sorry the ash cloud couldn't stop your flights… The vets finished and thanked us all – I got my stethoscope J . The rain had cleared, the vets and the Team were tired and 98 animals were sterilised. We did however forget that it was Margie's birthday… Sorry Margie and Happy Belated birthday!
While we were working to get this to run smoothly, Lynn helped us on the phone, we got our bank account changed to a steady account and a bank with lower bank charges. Thank you Lynn for your help with all the organising and on-call support, we missed you there. Thank you Anna Koeglenberg for fetching me in the pouring rain on Tuesday and going with me to the bank to sort out the changes, I love the car even with the doors that don't want to open J
Thank you Team CLAWS, Anton Ferreira, Lynn Ferreira, Georgia Sinclair, Cheryl Spilsbury, Venessa Ferreira, Bill Mitchell, Marinda Cloete, Charlene Cloete, Chena Petro, Jacolien Tekiso, Natalie Becker, Margie Smit, Leesie Jantjies, Liesel Hoffman, Lizette Burger, Anna and Joseph from the yellow Aloe, Rudi and Jacques. You were all a great help with everything you did, thank you for coming out in the cold wet weather and thank you for dealing with all the smells… Without you we would not have made this the success it was.

Have to thank Vetsol for their hard work and dong the great job that they do. Thank you for doing such amazing work and applying it where it is needed most. It's a difference you can see. See you later this year for the next adventure.


Dogs from nearby farms taking a nap

Please take note of our new banking details:

• CLAWS Capitec Bank
• Clanwilliam
• Acc number : 126 545 9728
• Branch : 47 00 10

Contact Number:

027 482 2397

Sterilisation Drive Monday 23 May - Wednesday 25 May 2011

We are doing a sterilisation drive next week and we desparately need some blankets and volunteers.It's a great way to see what we do.
Please let us know if you are keen. So far we have two coming up from Cape Town

Winners for the draw

First Prize goes to Andrew Torr

Second Prize  Paul Pretorius

Third Prize Sandy and Wayne Atrill

Lend a Hand :)

Clanwilliam Animal Welfare Society is Selling raffle tickets to fund a mass sterilisation drive that is taking place on 23 and 24 May.

CLAWS provides low-cost or free animal health and welfare services to the local community and farms in the greater Clanwilliam area.

Our mission is

* To reduce the number of suffering domestic animals in the greater Clanwilliam area.

* To achieve this by running clinics, vaccination programmers, mass-sterilisation drives and animal health and welfare education.

We have 3 great prizes to win; all you have to do is buy a raffle ticket for ONLY R10 to enter the draw that will take place on 26^th March.

The first Prize is two nights accommodation at Oudrif for two adults

Environmentally friendly lodge situated on the banks of the Doring River.

“At Oudrif there is always room for wonderment” New York Times

http://www.oudrif.co.za/

 

The second Prize is a one night stay at Boschkloof Swemgat for two adults

Boskloofswemgat is a beautiful small farm in the unspoiled Boschkloof Valley, situated on the banks of the Jan Dissels River with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains.

www.boskloofswemgat.co.za

The third prize is R300 hair care at a local salon

The tickets are sold at R10 each

The draw will take place on 26^th March 2011; all winners will be contacted via a phone call and an e-mail.

Thank you and Good Luck

Jeanine Mitchell

Chairperson

For more information please visit us at

www.clanwilliamanimalwelfare.blogspot.com

clawsclanwilliam@gmail.com

027 482 2397

Clinic Day with Dr Dave

Hello All

I brought along some enthusiastic helpers to the clinic yesterday, Jacolien and Margie came to help with sorting and filling out books and making up a database of patients.

Margie although pregnant was still keen to wash dogs even with morning sickness that lasts the whole day!  Jacolien made great sandwiches for breakfast as Dr Dave and Samuel are always hungry and don’t seem to do breakfast on the run.  They both helped to clean before the end of the day.  Jacolien's Birthday today!

 She is 21 HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACOLIEN!

Ivan was a great help, he is very keen to work and he works hard! He helped Samuel to pack and unpack Dr Dave’s vehicle, washed and dipped dogs and helped to set up in the morning and pack up at the end of the day.

By 8am we had the clinic up and running, we’d cleaned and arrange it for surgery.

Thanks to Anna we have power as my lead was too short- we must buy a multiple socket plug as ours does not work anymore! Anna also came in later to help with the patients and phone the owners when they were ready to go home.

Tannie Betty supplied the much need power for lights and the aircon!

Without the Aircon from Lynn and Anton we would not have made the day as it was hot and humid!!  They also helped to get an extra table in for Dave so he has plenty of space to put things down on!

By the time Dr Dave arrived the building was ready, clean and cool.

Bill bought and installed a light for the clinic and Dr Dave was thrilled to have the biggest brightest cool light that we could find.  Bill also donated a small divider that was originally donated by Paddy Herbert for the surgery, now Dr Dave can have some privacy!  It looks great.

Riana did a good job with appointment and we only had one no-show which was filled up really quickly. The back up system works very well! It is great to have a full list it make the vets visits worth it!

Lizette arrived to lend a hand too; she was ready and full of energy to help where needed. Her interest and enthusiasm is great and contagious.  Lizette has also adopted the Peahen that was rescued from a small cage last week. She washed and dipped and showed no fear even when the pit bull’s really showed her they did not appreciate the dip being sprayed onto their bodies! BRAVO!

Cheryl donated a few garden chairs for the garden, now the patients can sit under the tree while their beloved pets can be washed and dried while they wait.  The heat gets to a few owners too and the shaded seat with a glass of cold water to revive them does wonders!

Cheryl originally wanted to adopt the peahen but as she is in town and the peahen would wonder in her nursery we soon learnt it would probably not work as they are know for rearranging gardens and perching on vehicles J

Mariette Dr Dave’s wife was efficient as always and works very hard at keeping Dr Dave’s papers and accounts in order.

She was very excited when Georgia arrived with their lunch! Georgia had put together a great picnic style lunch for the surgery team!  They loved it well done.  Mariette liked it so much she insisted on keeping the big box of goodies on her lap even for the drive home when most of it was enjoyed already!  Much to Dr Dave’s confusion as to why ‘women’ must have so many things on their laps and positioned around them wile in the passenger seat of a single cab!

Georgia is in the process of looking for a young keen community member to send for training as an SPCA inspector to work for us.

Our sign is up!

Lou came to bring in the rescue kitten from last year for his operation and put up the CLAWS sign outside the lodge for us!

Finally it’s up now people can see where we are, but we’ll need to do more work on bringing them in!

After a long day I arrived home at 7:30pm, I dropped off a few forgotten booklets from the clinic and three patients from a farm.

It felt good as we did well yesterday and I’m happy that we had so much help, I hope that in the next months to come we will have just as many keen honest  people to lend a hand! 

This month I managed not to break anything on Bill’s vehicle…

Thank you to all of the members you did well! 

Without you none of this would be possible!

 I look forward to working with you and reaching many animals and educating many people about them.  Have a great weekend!

We have booked the next sterilisation drive!

                                11 and 12 April 2011!

We are still collecting funds to pay for the drive and any donations will be welcome.

We sterilize 80 animals in two days and this in turn prevents about 9600 pups/kittens being born!

New Clinic!

The end of December we gave notice at our previous building to save funds to go towards the next sterilisation drive.

We don’t have a vet in Clanwilliam and the community cant help us pay the rent for the building of R1500 per month.

Well the Massonic Lodge jumped to our rescue and gave us a room with a bathroom and a kitchen attached to use for free!

All we had to do was fix it…



Carpets lifted now for the floor!


We lifted the carpets and painted the floors white! This caused some concern at first but it all made sense when it come to hygiene.

We put in security and cleaned up the premesis.

We now have a yard in which we can wash and dip the dogs when they arrive and this will make a huge difference in the general health and maintanace of the animals!

Every two weeks they can come for mange treatment, deworming and a wash and dip for R10.

Sending the dogs home clean makes a huge difference – and they feel great especially in this heat.  We wont be doing it in winter!

We even have a tree for the dogs to sit under while they are waiting for the vet to assist them.

The first day was challenging as the first day of most projects are…

We lights and aircon we not quite what we had hoped and we hope that we will be able to get it done before the vet come again on the 3^rd of March 2011.

It was so hot but we were really busy!

Then Mariaan from walked in needing treatment for her dog and announced that we have a storey in the local news paper!  YAY!

Here it is in the local lingo Afrikaans:

CLANWILLIAM:   CLAWS (Clanwilliam Animal Welfare Society)? het teen die einde van 2010 benoude oomblikke beleef toe hul dat hul nie oor die nodige fondse beskik om voort te gaan nie en heel moontlik hul deure sal moet sluit.   CLAWS is 'n welsynsorganisasie en hoofsaaklik afhanklik van skenkings. 

Dié laekoste organisasie kon nie langer hul huidige huurgeld van R1 500 per maand bekostig nie en het gevoel dat hul die geld beter kon aanwend met 'n eenmalige kliniek elke jaar.  Die kliniek was slegs een maal per maand oop en op die dae het daar nie genoeg fondse ingekom om die huurgeld vir die maand te dek nie.  Om die deure te sluit sou egter die groter deel van die gemeenskap benadeel omdat die meeste kliënte nie oor die nodige fondse beskik om elders na veeartse te gaan nie.  Dit sou ook beteken dat dit waarvoor die lede van CLAWS so geveg het verniet was en die dorp se diere weereens agteruit sou gaan.

'n Wonderwerk het intussen gebeur en die kliniek het 'n nuwe heenkome gevind in 'n gedeelte van die Massonic Lodge in Parkstraat, beter bekend as die Vrymesselaars en die gebou langs die Hervormde Kerkgebou.   Die gedeelte wat voortaan deur CLAWS gebruik gaan word, word gratis aan hul gegee en die organisasie het nou die geleentheid om fondse op te bou sodat hul 'n beter diens aan die gemeenskap kan lewer.

Die kliniek sal steeds die eerste Donderdag van elke maand oop wees.   Hul bied 'n laekoste diens ten bate van dieregesondheid en -welsyn aan die plaaslike gemeenskap en plase in die Clanwilliam omgewing.   Hier word sterilisasies en inentings gedoen en diere word vir interne en eksterne parasiete behandel.   Twee keer per maand bied die kliniek behandeling vir brandsiek honde aan en hul hou ook jaarliks een of twee massa sterilisasieveldtogte.   Daarbenewens bied hul ook jaarliks  'n massa inentingsprogram aan.   Lede van CLAWS besoek voorheen benadeelde gebiede in die dorp en plase om die algemene gesondhied en welsyn van diere in die gebiede na te gaan.

Dienste wat deur CLAWS aangebied word is in belang van die hele Clanwilliam gemeenskap en nie net vir die voorheen benadeelde gebiede nie.   Indien die organisasie in die toekoms beter vaar, sal die hele Clanwilliam by hul dienste baat.   Lede van CLAWS probeer van hul kant alles in hul vermoë doen om 'n beter lewe te gee aan elke dier in die omgewing.

'n Beroep word op die gemeenskap van Clanwilliam gedoen om die organisasie te ondersteun en by te dra waar hul kan.   Enige donasies of skenkings ten opsigte van honde en katkos, komberse en kosbakke sal waardeer word.

It has been great!

We also received a donation of R10 000 for our mobile clinic project from Mr Arthur Gillis! Thank you Mr Gillis you are a star!

Mr James Gurney has offered to kit the caravan for us once we purchase one.

There has also been a little bird whispering in my ear that the municipality has got some money to help CLAWS with…

Then we’ll be able to buy a caravan and do another sterilisation drive!

Amazing how things are coming together!