Cape Town Vet Project

South Africa

This project is open to anyone with a love of animals and a passion for helping with their rescue, rehabilitation and treatment. Join our dynamic team to make a real difference to pets and strays in beautiful Cape Town. The shelter houses approximately 300 animals at any given time and the on-site vets serve animals from surrounding disadvantaged townships, with both static and a mobile clinics.

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PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Gain valuable experience in veterinary care and animal welfare.

Take a hands-on role in the kennels.

Rehabilitate animals to enable them to be adopted into a loving home.

Observe or assist with surgeries and clinic treatments alongside the resident vet.

Assist with crucial pre and post operative care for cats and dogs.

Live like a true South African by exploring the many game reserves, mountains, restaurants, live music events and world-class beaches.

Join our team to help pets in poverty stricken areas of Cape Town who turn to the clinic for charitable veterinary treatment and health advice. You will deal with the rescue, rehabilitation and re-homing of animals that are lost, abandoned, abused and neglected. Volunteers make a sustainable impact to people and pets in disadvantaged townships as they work between two or three clinic locations depending on where needs your help the most during your stay. This allows you to see an amazing variety of cases and benefit from working alongside fun and welcoming teams who strive, against the odds, to improve the lives of animals in South Africa.

This project is perfect for volunteers who want to make a real impact improving the lives of animals and who are passionate about welfare animal rights. You do not need any prior experience, just a desire to help and get stuck in with all aspects of the work. There are a lot of opportunities to those interested in and pursuing careers in animal rescue, veterinary and nursing. The shelters are pro-life and animals are only euthanized on the advice of a veterinarian, when they are incurably ill, with no hope of recovery.

KEY ACTIVITIES

All volunteers work side by side with staff who have passion and commitment to the animals in their care. We ask you to remember you will be joining a busy working charity, where animals always come first. You will be expected to assist with all aspects of clinic care, management, community education, kennels and medicine. Here, no one, including the head vet and clinical director, are above getting down on their knees to scrub a kennel or pick up a poo! We ask you adopt the same attitude in your work. Vet students in clinical years of vet school will be able to assist with surgery during their stay, however this is not a surgery training course, so you should not expect your days to be solely based around this.

Those with no prior experience will carry out the below jobs. If you are interested, you would love to get you helping with the nursing and veterinary related jobs listed further down this page, although we appreciate not everyone wishes to do so.

Feed dogs and cats
Grooming animals in the rescue centre
Giving TLC to strays
Help teach the local community about welfare and animal rights
Walk dogs, socialise them and play with them
Learn to do basic medical checks, like temperature and heart rate
Help give medications like tablets
Learn to help the vet/nurse team with tasks like restraining dogs and cats for injections

Those with nursing, pre-vet or animal care experience will assist with the above tasks as well as those outlined below:

Carry out routine health checks and assist with medicating patients
Triage animals coming to the hospital
Calculate drug doses
Vaccinating pets with the animal-health team
Help with pre and post op preparation and patient care
Bandaging and wound dressings
Help pack and sterilise surgical kits and prepare for surgery (catheter placement, intubating)
Develop nursing skills like anaesthetic monitoring and monitoring pain in post surgical patients

Vets and Vet Students will assist with the tasks above as well as those outlined below:

Vaccination
Sterilisations (spay and castrate)
Soft tissue surgery (e.g. lump removals)
Fracture management
Consultations
Wound care and closure
Diagnostics- blood, smear and crush samples
Dealing with tick borne diseases

ACCOMMODATION

You will be staying in a fully-furnished town house situated in Muizenberg, a 5 minute walk away from the beach. This area is one of the major tourism attractions in Cape Town and a surfer’s paradise. The area is filled with vibey bars, cafes, and amazing restaurants, and you’ll be based just opposite a major grocery store for you to do extra shopping should you need. It is the perfect base from which to explore this incredible city.

The volunteer accommodation is a cosy, safe home shared by volunteers and staff. There is a central lounge and dining area, a living room with some comfortable couches for socializing and relaxing, preparing for your next day or chatting with fellow volunteers. There is a spacious backyard for pulling up a deck chair and relaxing in the sun or to enjoy a South African Braai (BBQ). Volunteers often tell us that the best part of this project is how connected they feel to the staff and other volunteers and this comes from the vibrant social itinerary the project coordinator put together for you, and the social evenings and weekends that volunteers enjoy together.

Bedrooms sleep 6 to 8 and are bright, airy and have plenty of space for storing your bags and clothes. Bedding and towels are provided. Your laundry can be washed at just 80 rand a load (£4) and wifi costs just 50 rand (£2) per week from the house’s connection. You can also easily buy a local sim card and a data bundle to be roaming when you are out and about.

You will be provided with 3 meals a day during your stay and we can cater to most dietary requirements so just ask us when booking. Breakfast is eaten in the house before you head to the clinic, lunch is taken with you as a packed lunch, then dinner is eaten back at the house. Breakfast is a ‘help-yourself’ affair, and the other meals are cooked for you. We often all go out together once a week for a nice meal at one of the world class restaurants in Cape Town, then drinks in town.

LOCATION

The volunteer house and two clinics you work with are are based in Cape Town, at the southern tip of South Africa. A bustling, historical and cosmopolitan place renowned as a top tourist destination in it's own right, there is something for everyone in Cape Town.

Framed between oceans and mountains, Cape Town is surrounded by incredible natural beauty, with Table Mountain, one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, being a highlight.

Volunteers always make the most of their free time, and you can go shark cage diving, climb table mountain, swim with seals, take wine tours, horse ride, or explore the museums and historical sites of the city.

PROJECT COST

Want to know what’s included? Great news, it is pretty much everything!

Pre departure assistance with planning and flights from one of our destination specialists
Transfers to and from the airport on arrival and departure
Induction and training on the project
Accommodation in a lovely area of the city
3 meals a day
24 hour project coordinator

Not included in your fee: