Cape Town’s pets in poor communities getting their own taxi’s
AfriPaw is launching an initiative in poor Cape Town communities that involves pet taxis to make it easier for pets to get to a clinic.
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AfriPaw is launching an initiative in under-resourced communities around Cape Town to provide easier access to animal clinics for pets. Through this initiative Cape Town’s pets will receive designated transport in the form of a bicycle-drawn cart.
Pet owners unable to get their pets to clinic
Many pet owners in poor communities, e.g. Vrygrond, struggle to get their pets to a clinic due to a lack of transport. AfriPaw Animal Welfare is a non-profit organisation working in low-income communities to address the primary needs and healthcare of animals. The organisation’s latest initiative aims to address the problem of transporting pets to a clinic. Their solution is new bicycle taxis, and some pets from Vrygrond recently took it for a test drive.
Once a month, the organisation brings a mobile clinic to a primary school’s parking lot in the area where they offer free vaccinations, sterilisations, and a number of other health checks, according to capetownetc. Anél Wesson, Director and Co-Founder of AfriPaw, stated that they ‘noticed that people were unable to come to the clinic because their pets didn’t want to walk the distance’ and therefore came up with the idea of a bicycle taxi. She said that after seeing people bring their pets to the clinic in trolleys, they began to consider starting a pet taxi service.
Some pet owners in low-income communities are too old to walk to the mobile clinic, while others are scared that they will be robbed or attacked along the way, so they avoid walking to the clinic.
Click here to see one of these bicycle taxis in action in a video by AfriPaw.
What is the plan for these pet taxis?
The project is currently in its initial testing phase. These pet taxis must be simple so that people from the communities can easily operate them. Additionally, they should be affordable since the organisation relies on donations and sponsorships.
AfriPaw needs to determine which bicycles will work best in terms of pulling the weight of the animals.
4Evr Plastic Products designed and built the cart used in the testing phase free of charge. At the present time, AfriPaw is looking for a company to sponsor the project. They hope to have between five and ten taxis in the first year.
Involving the community
Members of the community will be the drivers of the pet taxis and will receive wages in return. This will create some income apart from getting pets the necessary care.
The monthly clinics are run in partnership with other animal welfare organisations and serve about 650 pets. The programmes involve volunteers helping as well as ambassadors who live in the community and receive a stipend. Anél Wesson said that the ambassadors educate and encourage pet owners to visit their monthly clinics.
“It’s very much a community integrated effort.”
Anél Wesson, AfriPaw
What are your thoughts on this initiative?
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