Women’s World Animals Clinic Popular With Children

Dominion, Volume 39, Issue 28, 27 October 1945, Page 10

Women’s World Animals Clinic Popular With Children

Children have been exhibiting plenty of interest in the newlybuilt S.P.C.A. Animal Clinic at Herd Street since the opening day, two weeks ago, when a small Clyde Quay School pupil began asking questions.

The child who grows up without a pet misses a major experience. Educationalists add that "nothing assists more in developing a youngster’s sense of responsibility, in making him considerate, titan having a dog or cat of his own." When children are cruel to pets or careless of them it is usually because they have not been taught to take care of them. Helping to promote respect and proper instruction in earing for pets is infinitely more effective than lecturing on kindness or sentimentalizing about animals. Exhortations tend to be forgotten or blandly ignored—pussy is still grabbed by the middle, the puppy is dragged about, or neglected in feeding or in exercise.

Among S.P.C.A. enthusiasts and helpers are Wellington Technical College, Wellington Girls’ College, and Wellington East Girls’ College students, who send donations every term, Chilton Saint James pupils at Lower Hutt, and Nga Tawa girls at Marton. Younger children in the city are now wanting lo know more about how to bring'up animals.

Love of animals is embodied in the “general character training”, part of the school curriculum, says Mr. C. Robertson. Education Department inspector.

Nature study and museum classes provide an introduction; mass visits to. the zoo are encouraged wherever possible. The care of animals is embodied in the lamb clubs, calf ehibs, and even hen clubs, formed by country school children. Clubs such as these, wiiere individual animals are the special pride of each child are particularly plentiful in tiie dairying districts, Taranaki. Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay. A school at Green Island, Dunedin, keeps bee hives in the grounds and one or two town schools also have bee clubs. When the 'Wellington animal clinic was closed to patients hut open to the public for inspection last Sunday afternoon many children wandered about the cream-walled waiting room, peered in the surgery cupboards and the big wash tubs where the animals are bathed, and asked for information.

Adults too, arc finding the clinic service invaluable for their pets. “The phone is ringing constantly,” said Mrs. AVnllace Clark, who is on duty every day. collecting and delivering ailing animals in the S.P.C.A. ambulance. Forty-one calls were made within tbe first week. (Transport is made at a nominal charge for people who cannot take animals to

the clinic themselves). “We also get a lot of false calls —as does the Eire Bri"ade It’s most inconsiderate and malicious of people,” she declared. Volunteer helpers, one of whom. Mrs. A Foster, worked for the first full week, are now working out a roster and taking turn at the telephone desk, keeping the clinic tidy, seeing that patients are comfortable, and comforting anxious owners.

"Time and time again a rapid recovery is expected, but animals ire the same as human beings, it takes time to get over an illness,” commented Mrs. Clarke. Convalescents are not kept at the clinic unless it is absolutely necessary If they need particularly careful nursin" they are taken home by the veterinary surgeon. Dr. Wolfe, who has been attending animals for the past 30 years. The staff takes a personal interest m each case. After treatment, the animal is either visited or its owners are asked to. call with it later on for a ■'eneral health check-up. A Yorkshire terrier, taken’ to (lie clinic on Saturday in a state of complete nervous collapse, lost hope when returned home. Mrs. Clark called on the dog in the course of the clinic’s follow-up policy and tended it for two hours. She is proud of the fact that it has recovered. The clinic's first •“case” involved a major operation. A caesarian had to be performed on a cat, later reported “fit and well.” Forty cases were treated during a “rush day” this week, the most colourful patient being an elderly parrot needing a splint for a sprained hip joint. The majority of cases have concerned broken legs, and paws caught in traps, and very old animals which have had to

be destroyed. So far the oldest of the last group was a cat approaching Ins 17th birthday. The frequency of cases where animals suffer from having paws caught in traps is giving rise to the suspicion that traps are being deliberately set for them. One spaniel had a leg broken, another dog which became entangled in a trap had to have part of his paw amputated, and cats have aLo fallen victim, traps crushing the leg bone, which then turn septic. More direct cases of callous maltreatment were discovered last week. There was the kitten left for days in an empty shop, and the kitten tossed over a fence into the Bataitai School grounds and left there with both legs paralysed. “On the other hand, some people are kind,” it was stated. They fed strays, or paid for painless destruction. Mrs. Clark, who worked as an S.P.C.A. volunteer before the. clinic opened, often being called out at one in the morning after driving the ambulance at night, is an enthusiast where dogs are concerned. Dogs she has looked after or collected for treatment by the veterinary surgeon, often recognize her. Ont of her own wire-haired terriers "Grenville” takes a front seat in the ambulance.