Ten-year-old Andiswa Kwele has been hailed as a hero by Mdzananda Animal Clinic staff in Khayelitsha, after rescuing an abandoned puppy.
Kwele was walking home from school when she saw a tiny puppy on the pavement.
“Many people would walk right past but this young child picked the puppy up and walked all the way to Mdzananda to get it help,” said the clinic’s spokesperson Marcelle du Plessis.
The puppy, just three days old, was immediately wrapped in a blanket, placed on a warm water bottle and bottle fed with puppy milk.
Mdzananda Animal Clinic general manager, Sr Heidi May added that she was proud of the young girl.
“Seeing children act in this way shows me that our education programmes are working.”
The clinic said the puppy, now named Jelly Bean, is doing very well and is being fostered by one of the clinic’s veterinarians until he is ready to be adopted.
The animal clinic has a strong focus on community education with a variety of programmes including on-site education, door-to-door education, school classes and events in partnership with other organisations.
“We are proud to announce that we have gained permission to start animal education in four schools in their life orientation classes. We started these classes at the beginning of this school term and will be working on entering more schools in the rest of the year,” said May.
In July they hosted educational events in Macassar and Gugulethu and did door-to-door education across Khayelitsha three days a week.
“We believe that a community that loves animals is a healthy community and that, through our educational and health care initiatives, we are helping to create a community with compassion and care for every animal,” Du Plessis said.
Cape Times