KFM Please Help Us To Help Animals In Need

Dear KFM Team,

We the undersigned would like to firstly congratulate KFM and the team for such a wonderful drive to help those less fortunate than ourselves-The Random Acts Of Kindness Drive- It is because of campaigns such as these that we, and many others continue to listen to KFM.

We would like to appeal to you on behalf of all the suffering animals in Cape Town, who also need your/our help. There are so many animal organisations here in Cape Town who are struggling and on the verge of shutting down.

These organisations are run by people with BIG hearts and almost no funds, who dedicate themselves rain or shine to help homeless, wounded, mistreated or abandoned animals who through no fault of their own are suffering. Most of the people running these organisations do so using their personal savings and once those dry up, they are forced to either close down or turn away animals in need. This is heart-wrenching and often thankless work.

There has been hardly any support for animal organisations, except from Wonderful companies such as the Shape Magazine who sponsored the PDSA as their 2007 'Shape Cares Campaign'. There are so many people in Cape Town, Thousands, who are Animal lovers and who would love to be given the opportunity, to help ease the suffering of these helpless creatures.

Even though there are many humans who need our help, the animals in our country also need help from us, As most of the troubles they are in, happen to be caused by the human race, it is only right that we help them. Animal charities have taken this role upon their shoulders - Let us assist them.

As two Great men have said:

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress may be judged by the way its animals are treated". -  Mahatma Gandhi

"When we love beyond the human barrier and acknowledge our similarities with non-human animals, we become aware of the value of all life forms." - Francois Hugo

There has never been a BIG drive, or campaign such as your Random Acts Of Kindness Campaign, done by any radio station for Animals, We challenge KFM to be the first to help small organisations such as these listed below with their respective

'Wish lists':

1.       Blaauwberg Animal Trust (BAT):
Blaauwberg Animal Trust (BAT) was founded in September 2002 to provide an urgently needed animal rescue centre in the Blaauwberg area. Originally the vision of founder trustee Dave Thorpe was to build an animal rescue shelter with a social responsibility component to provide sustainable support. However, our application for suitable land was finally turned down by the Cape Town Municipality, and Dave found a job with the NSPCA in Johannesburg, so we are left to carry on trying to raise funds to reach this goal. Due to the overwhelming growth in our area, it is ever more critical to establish some form of sanctuary for the numerous animals found abandoned on a daily basis.

2.       Donkey Sanctuary -McGregor Breede River Valley:
The vision of the Donkey Sanctuary is to provide abused, neglected and elderly donkeys with the opportunity to live out their lives with respect and dignity, surrounded by their own kind, in a protective and natural environment. This need is not currently met by animal welfare agencies operative in the region.

3.       The Animal Rescue Organisation:
The Animal Rescue Organisation was started in 1986, and this year celebrates 22 years of working for the welfare of sick and suffering animals living in townships and informal settlements around the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Since our inception, thousands of animals have received our care. With your support we can help thousands more%u2026The only way we can continue this essential work for the protection and welfare of animals is with continued financial support from the public.

4.       Cart Horse Protection Association:
Today the collection of scrap metal for many impoverished communities living on the Cape Flats is the only means of generating an income. The increase in horse and cart operators consequently led to the development of a second source of income generation; the renting out of horses and carts to individuals seeking a form of income. Unfortunately in most cases, these people were and are untrained, with no prior experience of working with horses. A gradual increase in horses being over worked, over loaded and often incredibly abused resulted in a need to create a sustainable solution to the carthorse problem.
CHPA regulates and subsidizes over five hundred working cart horses and their owners from impoverished areas. The services offered to the working cart horse owners by CHPA were initially subsidized by over 50%, which considerably reduced the running cost of the working cart horse. This allowed for a higher take-home income for the operator and enabled them to be able to afford to purchase the recommended grade of animal feed, expertise of Farrier shoeing, harness making and necessary veterinary treatment. With the ongoing regulation and assistance from CHPA the subsidization has been reduced to 25% and CHPA aims to continue to educate, support and regulate the industry to a final goal of encouraging the cart horse industry to fully recognize the importance of proper care and provision of their animals, be able to afford market related prices and eventually become fully sustainable and self sufficient, therefore extending and improving the working life of the cart horse.

5.       TEARS:
TEARS is a pro-life animal rescue society, whose core aim is to rescue, rehabilitate and re-home abandoned, abused and neglected dogs and cats. We exist to lessen the suffering of abandoned, injured and abused dogs and cats by rescuing them, providing for their well being and placing them into loving homes; reduce the numbers of unwanted animals by providing free sterilisations in disadvantaged communities; provide humane education to the people to create an awareness of the moral and ethical treatment of the animals whose world we share.

6.       C.A.R.E:
The Centre for Animal Rehabilitation and Education - C.A.R.E., located in Phalaborwa, South Africa, is a wildlife rehabilitation facility dedicated to the care, welfare, rehabilitation and protection of injured and orphaned indigenous wild animals. The centre specializes in the care of Chacma baboons, actively pursuing their rescue, rehabilitation and release.
The centre currently houses over 400 baboons and is the only facility in Southern Africa that accepts orphaned or abandoned baboons and offers them long term care.
C.A.R.E. has pioneered many firsts in primate care, and its rehabilitation programme has gained respect within scientific and animal behavioral communities. C.A.R.E also has an incredible track record in successfully rehabilitating hand-reared animals and releasing fully formed troops back into the wild.

7.       Seal Alert SA:
Why a one-man seal navy, after a decade of seal protection and rescue? The answer is simple, in order to rescue and rehabilitate each seal requires complete dedication, every day for up to a year. There is no funds for salaries or to pay volunteers. Wild seals cannot be saved by volunteering for a few days. Trust and bonds need to be established in order to be able to effectively treat them over the months of long treatment. Its very specialized and dangerous as a 360kg seal, as large as a bear, can inflict a nasty bite. Baby seals need to adopt you are their parent, if they are to survive. Without physically rescuing these seals in the wild, in all sea conditions, with specialized equipment, one is not able to understand fully what is required to conserve and protect this species for the future.
Wild Cape fur seals in the sea, will not respond to treatment or care, if no trust or bond has been established. Seal disentanglement is very specialized and takes years of skill to master.
As the attached pics illustrates, a day in the life of 45-year old, Francois Hugo, founder of Seal Alert-SA. Seal Alert-SA is a one-man seal-navy fighting for the survival of the Cape fur seals on this planet at the tip of Africa. Internationally known throughout Europe, Asia, America, and Australia. I am seal-father and mother, life-saving, rehabber, feeder, care giver, campaigner, researcher, investigator, rescuer to over a million seals dispersed along the coastline covering three countries. My day starts at 6am and ends at 10pm. After a decade, and over 5000 personal seal rescues, I never take a day off or weekend or a holiday. Right now I have 6 baby seals and one yearling undergoing their yearlong rehab in my seal centre in Hout Bay Harbour, one of which is blind and will require life-time care. Outside on my floating rafts, another 25-50 seals undergoing various stages of treatment or disentanglement. During the course of each year, up to 1000 seal lives are physically saved, many, many more through my ongoing international protection campaigns.
My monthly costs to keep my one-man/seal-life saving operation going exceeds R20 000 a month or 2000 euros. Which is made up entirely of fish feed costs, fuel and medication and the occasional replacement of equipment. Each day I need to raise R500 or 40 euros to purchase fish, just to keep existing rescued seals alive.
My days involve diving in shark patrolled waters, meeting heads of government, doing research, aerial surveillance, rescue of seals in all condition, big 360kg seals and small 5 kg baby seals, rough seas and calm. Internationally I am known as the Seal-Man, its what I do. I do this for no personal income, reward or salary. I am possibly the only organization in the world doing this, and what is more I personal fund the majority of my own rescues. I have no staff, no helpers, no cleaners, no volunteers, no persons answering phones or doing admin. Every dollar, pound, euro or rand raised goes directly to the seals, and the saving of their lives. - Francois Hugo (Seal Alert)

8.       Baboon Matters:
The remaining Chacma Baboons on the southern peninsula (close to Cape Town), face a bleak future as continued urbanization reduces wilderness areas, resulting in on-going conflict situations between man and baboon.  Due to the unacceptably high mortality rates it was predicted that within 15 years the baboons would face certain extinction.  At the current mortality rate there will not be a viable baboon population on the peninsula within the next 10 years.
The Baboon Monitor Project was started in 1999 and over the past eight years has considerably reduced the conflicts between primates by keeping baboons out of villages for 85% of days.
The project employs men from the nearby community of Masiphumelele. These men have been working closely with the baboons and have gained a wealth of wildlife experience as well as developing unique relationships with the baboons of the Da Gama and Slangkop troops.
Funding for the Baboon Monitor Project is an on-going concern as pressing social issues dominate the current funding situation in South Africa.

9.       Campaign Against Canned Hunting:
The mission is to get all trophy hunting banned in South Africa, since all trophy hunting in South Africa is canned to a greater or lesser extent. To that end, The Campaign Against Canned Hunting has put together a comprehensive audio visual presentation which has been shown to thousands of people from all walks of life in S.A.,Kenya and U.K. The presentation, which includes video clips and slides, with narration, is widely published on the Internet. You can find it here. WILDLIFE SANCTUARY - The Campaign Against Canned Hunting is raising funds to purchase land to establish a Wildlife Sanctuary and Chris and Bev are prepared to put in Rand for Rand with donors. Find out more about the sanctuary.

10.   Drakenstein Lion Park:
Drakenstein Lion Park is a privately funded facility. The Park provides lions in distress with sanctuary, where they are safe from abuse and persecution, and treated with the compassion and respect they deserve.
Construction of the Park began in May 1998 and the first lions were brought to the Park in January 1999. The Park opened its doors to the public in April 1999.
The Park is actively involved in improving the quality of life of lions in captivity, locally as well as internationally, either by offering these animals a home or working in conjunction with other animal welfare organizations to secure a safe future for individual animals in dire need.
The Park is not involved in commercial breeding or trade and offers lifetime care to all of it's animals.
All the animals brought to the Park are captive bred / hand reared and cannot be rehabilitated to the wild. The animals at the Park are assured a chance of living out their natural lives in an enriched environment.