The Garden Route SPCA writes:
Between our George and Mossel Bay branches, more than 900 animals arrive every month.
That's almost 11 000 animals every year - each one needing shelter, food, care and the chance of a new life.
We work at the SPCA so that every animal has a chance at a life worth living. But if we were to close our doors when our kennels were full and say: "Sorry, we can't take any more," then where would they go?
We already know the answer - we see it every single day.
They would be dumped on highways.
Left to starve in backyards.
Drowned in rivers.
Poisoned.
Beaten.
Or left to wander the streets until disease or cars claimed them.
That is the grim reality we face, and it is why we cannot turn them away. Yet it is also why we are sometimes forced to do the unimaginable - to let them go peacefully. Not because we want to, but because there are simply not enough responsible homes. This is a problem we did not create, but one we are left to carry.
When the second chance never comes
No one joins the SPCA to take life away. Our staff and volunteers are here because they love animals, because they believe in hope and healing. That is why the hardest part of our work is not the long hours, the cruelty cases, or the heartbreak we witness.
It is having to look into the eyes of an animal that trusts us and make that decision when the second chance never comes.
Every time, it breaks a piece of us. These are not numbers or statistics - they are souls with names, stories and personalities. Carrying that weight is unbearable, but we do it because leaving them to suffer alone, abandoned and unwanted would be even crueller.
And as if carrying this burden were not heavy enough, we are so often ridiculed, criticised or condemned by the very public we serve. Those words cut deep, because no one grieves these losses more than the people who must make these decisions. Every harsh comment adds to a wound we already carry.
So before you criticise - before you condemn us - ask yourself if you have done anything to ease this burden. Come and volunteer. Adopt. Donate. Or at the very least - please just sterilise your pet.
Be part of the solution.
But please, do not condemn the very people who are standing between these animals and a world that has already failed them.
Stand with us. Not against us.
