VN October 2021

Vetnews | October 2021 21 SAVA-CVC & EduCVC are registered on PayPal and PayFast! All donations qualify for an 18A Tax certificate which means your donation is tax deductible! Please contact us cvcmanager@sava.co.za for details. Bank details: Organization name: SAVA-CVC Company Registration No: 1998/016654/08 ABSA Bank Cheque Account: 4056779023 Branch: Brooklyn (632005) Swift Code: ABSA ZAJJ Organization name: EduCVC Company Registration No: 2019/570769/08 FNB Bank Cheque Account: 6283 6622 531 Branch: Brooklyn: 251345 SWIFT Code: FIRNZAJJ CVC News I CVC Nuus Farmworkers benefit fromunusual CVC project The EberVet Community Veterinary Clinic (CVC) team has travelled far and wide to sterilise pets from impoverished homes – from isolated villages in the drought-stricken Karoo to the bustling informal settlements of Somerset West – but the Glen Fruin farm project was a first and, we hope the first of many, to come. Glen Fruin is an apple and pear farm in the fruitful Elgin valley of theWestern Cape. It has been in the Heyns family since 1926 and currently accommodates around 60 farmworker familiesmade upof about 250 people, many of whomwere born on the farm. Farmer Ross Heyns is married to veterinarian Koba, so it is perhaps no surprisethatthemorethan100domesticpetsbelongingtofarmworkers are among the best cared-for you’re likely to find on a farm.“ The growing numbers of domestic pets on farms has become quite a problem and with that the spread of diseases like parvovirus,” said Koba Heyns, “so I started a vaccination programme on our farm, offering vaccinations at cost.” “Puppies were dying every second week from parvo until we started vaccinating,” recalled Ross. A condition of vaccination is that the animal must be sterilisedwhen it is old enough. Koba then approached CVC veterinarians, and mass sterilisation clinics were being held on the farm. A community hall was made available to the EberVet CVC veterinary team staffed by two vets, two nurses and a post-op carer. The farm’s tractor, trailing large crates used for hauling fruit, was sent out to collect pets from the farm workers’ cottages. “We were thrilled to see the number of Pitbulls being handed over for spaying and neutering. Pitbulls are valuable currency and denote status; breeding is prolific, so to have owners agreeing to sterilisation was no small achievement,” said EberVet CVC veterinary surgeon Dr Hilldidge Beer. “We hope more farmers will consider hosting CVC projects of this nature. Importantly, we are not only curbing the number of unwanted animals through sterilisation but preventing disease too. A healthier animal means a healthier community.” By Toni Younghusband Dr Belinda Roxburgh of EberVet CVC spays pitbull Chloe in the community hall at Glen Fruin farm >>> 20