New animal clinic in KWT pleases all

a brand-new r1.4 million veterinary clinic at the king william’s town spca has been officially opened, and residents can now bring their injured and sick animals to the facility.

the opening on monday night has been welcomed by residents, who previously had to travel to east london and stutterheim to access care for their animals in emergency situations. before this, the spca had been running a veterinary clinic in a small rondavel.

the new structure has a consulting room, an operating theatre, a grooming parlour and hospital kennels.

the facility will also deal with primary healthcare, while the hospital kennel section will be a facility to rehabilitate animals.

in addition, there is an educational room for residents and visiting school pupils to learn how to deal with animals.

the clinic will also serve communities from as far as peddie, as there are no clinics for animals in many communities.

injured livestock will also now be attended to by a veterinarian.

the structure is the brainchild of king spca chairperson annette rademeyer, who had carried the dream with her for the last 10 years.

she said she saw that a clinic was much needed by the community, and she set the ball rolling to have the clinic built.

construction of the clinic was made possible by donations from individuals, charities and local companies.

lotto donated r100 000, while r400 000 was received from kwt rotary club for building the operating theatre, which is called the dr pox raghavjee veterinary operating theatre.

it was named in memory of “dr pox”, a popular kwt doctor and former rotarian who was murdered in 2007.

the rotary anns, (active women members), donated r10 000 and a list of companies also contributed.

king resident heather farrow said she was delighted the facility had been opened.

“it’s a wonderful facility for king. we will now have a vet during some days of the week instead of having to drive to east london.”

mandla tom said the clinic would bring relief as he had to fork out money to take his dog to east london for medical assistance.

rademeyer said they were expecting residents to bring their animals in numbers.

“the clinic is going to have a huge effect,” she said.

dr peter wood will be running a practice from the spca and will visit kwt on tuesdays and fridays.

by msindisi fengu