CLAW (community led animal welfare) provides primary healthcare for pets in informal settlements around Soweto and Johannesburg. CLAW has a clinic based on the Durban Deep Mine in Roodepoort and runs daily mobile clinics that provide services ranging from internal and external parasite control, vaccination, sterilisation and 24-hour emergency services. The sick animals that cannot be treated in the field are brought to the clinic for treatment. Before the animals go home they are sterilized and neutered and sent home with a vaccination card that contains all their medical history.

It works closely with community-based organisations, schools, the Department of Agriculture and veterinary services around the city.

Since its start in 1999, CLAW's team of veterinarians and local volunteers have treated, vaccinated, and provided spay and neuter services to sterilize thousands of pets.

I started working for CLAW in 2008 and have since been faced with many challenges, for instance trying to overcome the language barrier, providing education on what the pets need and my other things I will talk about and go into more detail about.

But on the other hand I have also seen many successes in treating the animals and seeing how the owners take better care of their pets and bringing their pets to us for regular check-up and vaccinations.

In my talk I will go into more detail about the challenges we face on a daily basis but also talk about the many successes we see on a daily basis.