GEORGE NEWS - Animal welfare organisations, like the SPCA and the PDSA, will have to brace themselves for a tough year as the national lottery continues to curtail funding for animal welfare.
The national lottery has allocated R138-million to animal welfare organisations since 2002, which is 1,29% of the total R10,7-billion allocated in the charities category of the National Lottery Commission's (NLC) funding.
Chairperson of the Garden Route SPCA Heather Church said for the past 15 years the SPCA and its branches across the country have received tens of millions of rand in funding from the NLC.
"But in 2017 the funding was cut after the NLC announced a shift in its focus to poverty relief, leaving the SPCA and other animal welfare organisations scrambling to make ends meet."
Church believes the decision is shortsighted. "We will have to lean harder on the community of George for funding.
"Georgians have always been fantastic supporters of the SPCA and I believe they will once again step up to the plate and take responsibility for the plight of the animals we serve."
Animal welfare organisations were informed in 2016 that applications for funding within the charities sector for the year 2016/2017 would focus on areas aligned to the National Development Plan (NDP), which "only included helping vulnerable people and crime prevention".
In response to a query from the national SPCA office, the SPCA received the following reply: "Unfortunately, animal welfare is not one of the focus areas for this year's open call for applications, and therefore your application will not be accepted this time around.
"The criteria also exclude some other sectors for this call."
The Garden Route SPCA is currently spending the last of its lottery allocation. Animal welfare has once again been excluded from the spending for the next round of funding applications (2017/2018), according to an advert on the NLC's website.
The SPCA receives no funding from government and relies on lottery funding and the generosity of the public to ensure that it can continue the work it does.
The funding is also used for outreach projects, property maintenance and upgrading, veterinary costs, animal handling equipment and salaries, among other expenses.
"We are thankful to the lottery for all they have done for us in the past. We have bought vehicles, extended our offices and generally improved our facilities," said Church.
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