British veterinarian provides help in Khayalitsha animal clinic

Cambridge educated veterinarian George Lightfoot is helping the pets of the poor at a Cape Town clinic that runs from six recycled shipping containers.

With animal welfare assistant Lazola belting out a kwaito hit song at one end of the surgery, volunteer veterinarian George Lightfoot is finishing up suturing his fourth cat spay of the morning.

In every possible way imaginable, it’s a long way from the sophisticated Surrey vet practice Lightfoot left behind to help out at the Mdzananda Animal Clinic in Khayalitsha outside Cape Town, – a facility that works from six recycled shipping containers and provides the only full time veterinary service to a community of more than one-million people.

Mdzananda (the word means distemper in the local isiXhosa dialect) is a companion animal project of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW – www.ifaw.org) and provides primary veterinary health services such as dipping, deworming, vaccination and – most importantly – sterilisation of pets in the deeply impoverished community.

“The project provides a very good and necessary service. A lot of people in the township have dogs and, without a veterinary service, the dogs are going to suffer,” says Lightfoot.

“When I got here I expected Mdzananda to be far more basic in the services it provides, but even though it’s a very no-frills kind of place – it offers thoroughly professional support to the community. It even has an isolation unit for infectious cases – even if it is a container.”

Arriving to work at the clinic was an eye-opener for Lightfoot. Pet owners sometimes walk miles to bring their pets for help, pushing them in shopping trolleys or on makeshift trailers and sometimes even in prams. And more often than not, cats arrive in a sack to prevent them escaping.

When he is not sterilising dogs and cats, Lightfoot – who has volunteered two months of his time to helping Mdzananda - works in the consulting container.

“I’m really enjoying working in Khayalitsha. The staff are fantastic, very dedicated and genuinely care for the animals. Oh yes, and they are great fun, I’ve never operated with an assistant who sings pop songs!” he says.

“In my time here, my surgical skills have really improved – yesterday I did 11 sterilisations in just under three hours. In addition I’m treating and caring for dogs with diseases that you never or rarely see in – like babesia and distemper. Mdzananda is the first time I’ve ever treated distemper.”

Lightfoot, a graduate of Cambridge Veterinary School, decided to volunteer his services to Mdzananda after reading about the project in an article written by Emma Milne, better known as “Emma the Vet” from the popular BBC television series she starred in.

“Emma visited South Africa in early 2008, and undertook to raise as much publicity as possible for Mdzananda and our other companion animal projects, to encourage British vets to sign up for a stint volunteering for them” said Christina Pretorius of IFAW.

“It’s been a very successful initiative. We’ve been able to welcome volunteer vets every month since Emma was here in February last year.”

Lightfoot’s family home is in Woodbridge, Suffolk. He says that it was always likely that he going to be a vet. His grandfather started a successful equine practice in Newmarket, the home of British horse racing, which his uncle continues to be part of today.

Working at Mdzananda is his second volunteer vet job. The first was in where he cared for donkeys for a month.

“I love traveling and working gives you the opportunity to discover a place properly – and of course Cape Town is absolutely fantastic.”

·        Qualified veterinarians who would like to volunteer their services to help IFAW’s Mdzananda Animal Clinic in Cape Town, or Community Led Animal Welfare (CLAW) in Johannesburg should email: cpretorius@ifaw.org