WITH the increase of neglected stray animals around Humansdorp, for over a year now, Paulene Hardy and Carmen Stevens have been hard at work raising funds to sterilise animals throughout Kouga through their non-profit organisation, Spay It Forward.
In February last year, after noticing the many stray animals in the area, Hardy and Stevens decided to raise funds to sterilise animals, with the help of Dr Adre Kriel, who is a veterinarian at the Humansdorp SPCA.
Hardy said when they began the project, they planned to do eight sterilisations a month, but they did not realise how the demand would grow.
“At first, we thought we could round up all the stray animals and transport them to the vet, but we did not have the correct information or the right resources. We had to learn about the process before embarking on this project,” said Hardy.
With money from their own pockets and one substantial donation from Hardy’s son, Lloyd Cornwall, they were able to get the Spay It Forward initiative off the ground.
“We were thrilled when we funded our very first dog,” said Hardy.
She said the following month they were ready to get to work, but soon realised that rounding the dogs off the streets was not permissible or possible.
Instead, they needed to encourage dog and cat owners to do the responsible thing by having their pets spayed.
More than one year later the two women have already funded 250 sterilisations, with 37 in October alone, and they have helped sterilise dogs and cats from Humansdorp, Thornhill, Patensie, Hankey, Oyster Bay, and Joubertina.
To raise funds for the initiative, Hardy and Stevens, together with Barbara Barnard, Colleen Sherren, Avril Tonks, and Jane Amos, have been working hard to source top quality books which they sell at three book nooks at stores namely, Kouga Print, Rambling Rose, and Trade Winds in St Francis Bay.
In addition, the six women sell books online through the Green Box online website, an initiative which was established at the start of the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, when clients bought fresh home grown produce on the website and were given the option to buy second-hand books, which were then delivered to their homes.
Hardy said their latest exciting news was that they were currently in the process of opening another branch of Spay It Forward in Joubertina, which will be run by Loraine Benadie-Maass.
“We sincerely hope in the future we will open even more branches and expand in sterilising dogs and cats across the Kouga area,” said Hardy.
