The City’s Safety and Security Directorate supports World Spay Day and the many initiatives by animal organisations to increase awareness around the need to spay and save the lives of animals. World Spay Day is marked on 22 February 2022. The City’s Law Enforcement Department assists with these initiatives.
The recently promulgated Animal Keeping By-law regulates the number of pets that any one person may keep, and the conditions under which those pets must be kept.
- The by-law empowers the Animal Control Unit (ACU), a specialised unit within the Law Enforcement Department, to act on nuisance complaints, non-adherence to animal keeping as well as dog attacks and act together with animal welfare organisations in cases of animal cruelty.
Apart from enforcing the relevant by-laws, the ACU also gives guidance and support to registered Cape Animal Welfare Forum(CAWF) organisations. On Sunday, 13 February 2022, the City’s Animal Control Unit supported and participated in the highly popular Paws-a-while animal adoption fair held in Observatory. The fair hosted 57 stalls, which included more than 20 animal organisations.
The Animal Keeping By-law also provides for mandatory sterilisation for dogs and cats that are over six months old. Owners may apply to be exempted from this provision, which will be considered on a case by case basis.
In addition to the above, the ACU also formulated a Dog fighting Task Team with the Special Investigating Unit and SPCA, which enable these agencies to assist animals and owners in an integrated and supportive approach.
An important role player and partner in the animal welfare sector is CAWF – an umbrella body of 44 like-minded registered animal welfare organisations in the Western Cape.
According to CAWF, these hard working NGOs perform a wide range of animal welfare and rightist activities, including advocacy campaigns, the provision of veterinary hospital and mobile clinic facilities, ongoing sterilisation and adoption campaigns, as well as the rescue of thousands of injured, sick and suffering animals annually.
Source: City Of Cape Town