Thanks to a sharp-eyed nature lover and a team of caring people, a calf escaped drowning in a pool of sewage at the Mayfield waste water treatment works last week.
Thanks to a sharp-eyed nature lover and a team of caring people, a calf escaped drowning in a pool of sewage at the Mayfield waste water treatment works last week.
But the incident has highlighted the dangerous situation at the facility, where security is poor and an uncovered pit is a sure death trap for dogs, or children.
Grahamstown resident Lynette Rudman is a keen birdwatcher and last Wednesday she and some friends visited the commonage adjacent to the Mayfield sewage works north-east of Grahamstown.
The overflow ponds are rich in birdlife. But when Rudman saw movement in one of them, it wasn’t a water bird but a calf, close to drowning in the sludge.
All that remained above the water were its nose and eyes. “It was trapped in a very deep cement reservoir and had to basically tread water in order to keep the nose above the surface,” Rudman explained in her Facebook post the next day.
SPCA manager Mark Thomas takes over the story. “Hi-tec were first at the scene and they called the fire department and the SPCA,” Thomas told Grocott’s Mail.
“When we got there, the [Makana] fire department were busy rescuing the calf. In fact, it was them who got it out. “A large calf is not easy to manoeuvre, and it showed what a poor state it was in that we had no trouble getting it into the SPCA bakkie.”
They took the shivering calf to Frontier Vet who checked it out. “That calf’s body temperature was 7°C – normal is 20-30 degrees.
“The first thing we did with it was wash and dry it, and put it into a heating cubicle (which is a special facility they have) with some lucerne and hay.
“The vet also gave it antibiotics because we weren’t sure what it had ingested.” The calf was full of grazes and cuts from trying to get out of the sewage pond.
“Lynette (Rudman) was that calf’s last line of hope,” Thomas said. “When she got there, its head and nostrils were only just above the water.”
When they went to Frontier Vet the next day, they were delighted to see the calf had recovered. “It was a complete success story. But had that been a person, it might have been a very different story.”
Pieter Burger of We Move It then took the calf to the SPCA. Both Rudman and Thomas said they were shocked at the lack of safety and security at the facility.
“The cement reservoirs are extremely dangerous there and should be blocked off to any animals or humans,” Rudman said in her Facebook post. “The gates to that pump house have been stolen so no use putting more gates there.
“Rather use old planks to block that entrance or old rusty wire that won't get stolen.” Thomas said: “It’s a real problem that there is no monitoring at that facility. There are open pits at the pump station.
“Lots of people walk their dogs in the area, and if a dog fell down there, there’s a strong chance the owner would try to go in after it because of the emotional bond many people have with their animals.
“It’s something we encounter quite often – and usually the owners get into even worse difficulty than the animals.” Thomas said they were glad it worked out well but were aware that it could have been very different.
“We’re very grateful to everyone concerned – Hi-Tec, Lynette and Pieter Burger –who transported the calf from the vet to the SPCA for free,” Thomas said.
“We couldn’t do what we do without a community that cares so much about our animals.” At the time of going to press no comment had been received from Makana Municipality in response to questions about safety at and around the facility.
