MORE PICTURES

Here are more pictures to enjoy

BENONI PRIMARY SCHOOL

We recently had an educational visit to Benoni Primary School in Actonville and the children brought us loads of food and blankets and bowls for the animals in our care. We were so lucky!!

They also coloured in these pictures for us and we are sure you will agree that they are really colourful and great

SO MUCH TO DO SO LITTLE TIME

Well it is a month since the dinner dance and we still have to post more photos, but time has been fleeting of late.

Please come back again for a visit in the near future.

We are also busy adding our own web pages at http://www.myspca.co.za so check it out aslo when you get a chance

DINNER DANCE

Well it has been a long time in organising or so it felt but last night was the culmination of a number of weeks of hard work by all concerned and we had a fantastic night. The Benoni Country Club was the venue for a glittering evening. The venue had been decorated to a fantastic standard by a company called Decor Delight and it certainly was that.

The room was draped in black and white fabric which fell from a glitter ball to the sides of the room giving a feel of a luxurious tented oasis. Tables were in black and silver with centre pieces which rose up and were lit by fairy lights. Sheer magic. Thank you Decor Delight. The picture here does not do justice to the scene.

We had so much input from so many generous people that we will be saying thank you for a long time and I am sure will have a touch of writers cramp.

A stunning cake was made for us by a lady Eugene a great friend of Benoni SPCA.

Eugene created a scene of dogs and birds and small creatures including a pair of lady birds. The bird is sitting on the edge of a bird bath which had a special jelly in it to look like water,

The 60th Birthday was in gold as was Benoni SPCA . This was a master piece of rich fruit cake and transporting it was quite stressful lest we damage it. Thank You Eugene for a stunning cake

We had the donation of a second cake with the SPCA logo as the decoration. Again this lovely sponge was a delight and was donated by Bully’s Biltong & Tuisnywerheid, (home bake shop for non Afrikaans speakers) of Kempton Park. Thank You also for this lovely cake which was eaten by the late nighters and much enjoyed. One good friend had about three slices so I think that is a great testimony to how good it was.

The two little dogs in each corner and the SPCA colours were really special.

Chris our MC really did a great job and even gave advice on how to administer pet medication and the like. Even advising that before trying to use a straw to blow the tablet into the pets mouth you check that it is suitable for human consumption - the medication that is, as so often they just know when to blow and when to suck.

The music for the night was by NIKO a one man band who had disco but who also had a great voice and sang while playing the guitar and sang Elvis, Bee Gees and the like. Dancing was good and we were well entertained through the night.

But our paying guests and special friends were not just let of with this. We had so much more lined up for them, but we will continue that another day with more photos and tales.

TWO FRIENDS ARE HOMED

These two came in together and when a family was found for them the new owner decided he couldn't just leave one behind. He now has two faithful companions who look very much 'at home' already.

THE AGM

The AGM has come and gone and it was disappointing to see how few of our members attended.

We duly elected a new Managing Committee with

• Ruth Hampson as Chair Person,
• Jessie Farmery as Vice Chair Person,
• Louise Panton as Company Secretary
• Kim Heard as Treasurer.
• Dennese Brooke, member
• Val Fuller, member

We also have two people who are prepared to serve on the committee and they will be co-opted on at our first meeting which is to be held soon.

We will organise a photo session at the first meeting so that you can meet and greet the volunteers who put in so many hours fund raising and running the SPCA as a business.

We are busy looking to move as you may know and we have found another piece of land which is 7 acres and which we hope we can get passed through the council with no objections. Please keep your fingers crossed for us.

If you have any questions please feel free to email the vice chairperson Jessie who maintains our Blog.

NEW WEB SITE

Well we are quite excited as we are busy putting together a web site for BENONI SPCA which we hope will draw lots of visitors to us. So lots more work. to be done. Volunteers anyone???

AIR GUNS AND THE LAW

There have been a couple of articles in the paper (Benoni City Times) about air guns and their use. One was fired at a property in Western Extension a couple of weeks ago and originally there was a statement that they were not illegal.

IT IS ILLEGAL to fire airguns / pellet guns in South Africa in a built up area. The Government Gazette (April 10, 2001) Chapter 16 (offences) section 120(3) states

It is an offence to:

(a) cause bodily injury to any person or cause damage to property or any person by negligently using a firearm, an antique firearm or an airgun.

It is an offence to discharge these articles in a built up area or in a public place without good reason to do so.

So why are we interested? Well we are the ones who usually have to deal with fall out from the use of these weapons especially when children are involved and they injury a cat, dog or any animal in their neighbourhood.

Please don't buy these guns for your children or even for yourself. Firearms of any description need to be used responsibly. So please think before you buy.

Here are our Inspectors and volunteers at last years Benoni Carnival.

Ain't they sweet

AGM

Well it is that time of year again and we are holding our AGM on Saturday the 26 July 2008. It will be at Northfield Methodist Church in the Wesley hall and will start at 14h00 sharp.

This is when we report back to the members of our society and vote the new committee in to place. We really do need people to join our society and help with time and enthusiasm if we are to continue saving the animals and working with the people in our community.

Annual membership costs R50 with a life membership of R400. Companies can become members for a fee of R1500.

How about sponsoring a kennel or perhaps advertising your company with a board. At a cost of R1,000 a month it is not huge. (You have to provide the board)

Come and join us and make a difference.

OH BOY I'M TIRED

Well today I am shattered. We have just spent the morning at our monthly car boot sale and although we only had a few 'boots' we still managed to raise funds by selling soup and rolls, tea, coffee, cold drink, chocolate and sweets.

It is just fantastic to see the response we get. Also it increases the numbers of people coming around the kennels and cattery and so gives our friends more exposure.

Talking of homing one lady came in to visit and brought a picture of the kitten she had adopted a few weeks back. This one had just been back to get spayed as per our terms, but look at this picture of Toki (short for Tokalosh - a naughty spirit in African Culture). The servant of this cat told us she has never had a cat before and Toki had originally been called Annie but due to her naughty behaviour within two weeks had been renamed to Toki

HELP HELP HELP

Please can you help us with the donation of balls of wool. We have a great lady who knits blankets for our dogs but obviously she needs wool.

If you please send me an email to jessief@wirelessza.co.za

SAD NEWS

Well it is sad to have to say that Jenny Tyler, Noeline Claire Talbot and Soula Foord have decided to leave the committee. Jenny has been chairperson for two years and we will miss her expertise and enthusiasm.

Ruth Hampson has taken over as acting chair until we have our AGM. She will do a sterling job and is already showing her worth.

Education Education Education

Well it was a great treat speaking with the widlife class at St Dunstans School in Benoni. They were all so enthusiastic in their questioning and they also knew a lot about the animals.

There was some surprise that we deal with more that just cats and dogs. In fact a great deal of our work involves live stock. Also we are getting more and more involved with exotic animals such as iguanas and rare snakes and the like.

We focused on the need for sterilization and how important that is in keeping the number of animals found dumped on our streets and in the veld down.

We also received a donation of food, bowls and toys from the children which will be put to good use by our society.

Why not join the Benoni SPCA Group on Face book and meet friends of the society

Dinner Dance

Yo celebrate the SPCA's 60th Birthday in Benoni we are holding a dinner dance at the Benoni Country Club on 30th August 2008.

This promises to be a great night with lots of good food, a cash bar and prizes and the like gallore. We hope to net some great entertainment for you and with tickets costing R200 per head it is really good value for money.

So come along and let your hair down. To book call our offices or contact Jessie on 076 731 3627

COME ON DO IT FOR THE ANIMALS

A HAPPY STORY

Too often our stories are not happy ones so it is always great when we have one to tell.

Last weekend a grateful owner brought us in a picture of 'Peanut' who had managed to get lost and had been brought into our offices. When reunited they were both so happy to see each other.

That's what makes our days so worth while.

EDUCATION IS FUN

One of the responsibilities of the SPCA is to be proactive in promoting animal health and care. We spend time with children in schools talking about caring for their pets and what they need to do to ensure the animals are well looked after.

After a recent visit to Arbor Pre Primary School the children were asked to colour in some pictures for us and we would like to share the ones we've received so far.

We want to say thank you for your support and the food collection that the children did. Also thank you for your great pages and we want to see more of them

ZIMBABWE FOOD APPEAL

Well late last year we had an appeal out to the people of Benoni and Gauteng asking for support to raise money and to collect food for the Zimbabwe SPCA where food was desperately short.

We were overwhelmed by the support we received and after a great deal of red tape and toing and froing we managed to get the food to them. Here is what they had to say

'Hi Benoni SPCA

The dog food has finally arrived!! It arrived on Saturday and we had to grab some volunteers to help us offload – have taken photos of the offloading. The truck could not get on our property so we offloaded into the gate – then had to move it all up to the office block where it is stored in the boardroom! But every bit of sweat was worth it as the SPCA’s can certainly use the extra food. It took eight of us five and a half hours – but as I said it is all worth it!! I will now start the distribution around the Country – will take photos of each stage.

You can see Felix, our office cat checking out a broken bag of Whiskas!! He was very impressed with the whole day!!

Thank you from all 13 SPCA’s in Zim and the animals that so desperately need our help.

Kind regards

Glynis Vaughan

Chief Inspector

ZNSPCA

P O Box CH55,

Chisipite,

Harare,

Zimbabwe

Phone: +263 4 497574

Fax: +263 4 497885'

HOW TIME FLIES

Yet again I have to say I cannot believe it is so long since I visited here and posted ablog, but please forgive me and see how much work we have been doing.