Dogs don’t live long in Westlake - three years is considered a ripe old age! This is UNACCEPTABLE!

We have told you before about our vital work in a poor township called Westlake in South Africa. Even “pet” dogs here routinely suffer lives of abuse, neglect and sickness, while the lives of ownerless street dogs (and cats) are filled with almost unimaginable horror.

Now, with winter upon South Africa, your support is needed more than ever.

Let’s be crystal clear - we have witnessed young children beating street dogs with sticks for absolutely no reason. We routinely see dogs suffering from mange, eye infections and sexually transmitted diseases. They survive by foraging in rubbish dumps. Abused street dogs are always hungry in this South African township. If we can’t provide sterilization for them, they breed uncontrollably and then they and their puppies die painful deaths.

Dogs don’t live long in Westlake - three years is considered a ripe old age!

With your help, we are carrying out vital work for animals in Westlake, and with our partner, Fur-Get-Me-Knot, have dramatically improved the lives of many dogs who live here. We help by providing food, medical care and spay and neuter programs.

But we still have a long way to go…

Whippings and being unmercifully kicked and choked are everyday risks for every dog.

Even many pet dogs live their lives tethered to chains and are starved to make them more aggressive. (Dog fighting is rife because owners make money gambling on the outcome.) It’s astonishing, it’s callous, but many owners don’t even put out a bowl of water for their thirsty dogs.

People just don’t understand that dogs have needs and feel fear and pain. So, education is a vital part of our program.

The casual cruelty - the tremendous extent of it - is heartbreaking to see.

When we arrive, owners frequently make themselves scarce because they know we will report them if we find proof. To people like this, dogs are either a nuisance or tools to be discarded when they get sick.

To make it even worse, we are not legally allowed to confiscate an abused dog, and the police ignore their duty to intervene! All we can do is try to reason with the owners and teach them about the proper care of dogs, give them food and flea treatments, and offer free help for medical treatment.

Without us - without your support - the dogs’ bleak lives would be even worse!
We bring hope where no hope exists!

We literally go from door-to-door and plead with owners to let us help their dogs!

With your support today, we can intensify our efforts to bring these poor, innocent creatures food, a little love and the chance of survival.

As it’s winter now in South Africa, the dogs are hungrier than ever in the cold, wet weather and it is vitally important they are vaccinated to protect them from distemper, parvo and rabies. Every one of these is a killer disease and the kind of sickness that spreads like wildfire, just like the COVID-19 virus.

As desperate as life is for chained and starved pet dogs who are not provided water and forced to fight, right now during winter street dogs are in grave peril. When they venture into the elements from wherever they hide to stay “safe” to forage for food scraps, they face multiple dangers - being stoned, beaten, shot (unless we find them first and get them to safety).

Females are never spayed and give birth to litter after litter of puppies. Pregnant mothers expend all their energy feeding their pups and because they can’t find enough food, they become sick, and sicker, until both they and the puppies die.

Quite simply, we and our partners – and you - are the only light in dreadful, evil darkness for street dogs in Westlake.

As an animal lover, you know that we can’t turn our back on any of this vileness to dogs. We must do everything we can to help them. We return again and again to Westlake, and we will continue to return again and again to provide the dogs with immediate help and educate owners about humane care.

Among so many needs - food being on top of the list - right now, the most immediate need is obtaining urgently needed vaccines to inoculate as many dogs as possible against distemper, parvo and rabies. If we can raise $5,000 (£3,500), we can vaccinate hundreds. This will have a tremendous impact on their lives and chance for survival.

With your help today, we will get them the food and vaccines they so desperately need. Please, be as generous as you can. Without the help that you and others like you provide through your donations, hundreds of dogs would die nasty, painful deaths.

Please help provide the neglected dogs of Westlake with food and vaccines. Otherwise, the streets will be littered with dead puppies this winter.

For the animals,

Brian and Gloria Davies (and Max and Flora!)
Founders
Network for Animals

P.S. We are sometimes asked why we simply don’t confiscate chained dogs. It may be hard to believe but if we did that, we would be arrested! We are working to legally challenge this situation, but in the meantime, dogs need food, dogs need medical care and dogs need vaccinating - that’s what your donation today will achieve. Please be as generous as you can.