A little while ago we told you the story of Shaygum Newman, a lone figure caring for street dogs in Hangberg, South Africa, a desperately poor community of 28,000 people near Cape Town, where dogs’ lives are nasty, brutish and short.
Animals in Hangberg are ignored by local authorities. There’s no vet in Hangberg, no sterilisation programme, no medical care and thousands of dogs in need. Shaygum rescues and treats as many dogs as he can, looking after them in the small yard behind his shack and paying for food from his own pocket. If you live in Hangberg and have a sick animal, Shaygum’s Shelter is the only place to go – a shack on a mountain where lives a kind man who loves dogs.
Shaygum asked NFA for help to buy fencing to make his yard secure, so the dogs and puppies can’t wander. We bought Shaygum’s Shelter some fencing and then made his year by donating enough dog food to feed the animals in his little shelter for six months.
NFA’s Brian Davies is full of praise from Shaygum’s work with the dogs. "This is a man who has almost nothing and what he has he shares with street dogs," he said adding: "This is animal welfare at its most basic and perhaps at its most moving."
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