As a woman who works with animal sanctuaries, I am appalled by the ambivalence of our government towards animal rights!!

Townships are trawled by neglected and abused dogs and cats. Feral cats litter our suburbs and with the rise in immigration, so is the abandonment of once “a baby in the family”. Shelters are inundated with a never ending flow of cats and dogs!! They cannot keep up, even having to turn away many animals.

Spaying and neutering South African household pets needs to become a law! Any vet coming across an unspayed or neutered dog should be able to report its owner to the police and the owner should get fined heavily for it.

This law alone would see a decline in household pet breeding. This would mean, less animals being subjected to neglectful owners and homes, less animals having to need sanctuary and less animals going into kill shelters.

Animal rights needs to become a part of our legislation. It’s quite a quick, simple process. It would be even beneficial to our government financially to implement these changes.