The barking from TEARS reverberates across the entirety of Masiphumalele daily, but what’s represented by those sounds make the annoyance of constant dog yelping kinda comforting. The Emma Animal Rescue Society (TEARS) takes stray animals and domestic pets from the local communities for vaccinations, fixing and disease treatment at a price that no one can argue with: free. Instead of putting down pups with horrifying skin diseases, they do what they can to ensure that every animal gets a chance at survival and adoption. And when they wander across a pet cat that hasn’t been neutered yet, they create a positive relationship and rapport between TEARS and the owner, gaining respect and trust among people who don’t often have the money to do the right thing for their beloved pets.

A Very Touching Moment

The mobile clinic invited us to join a ride through Masi to observe how they find needy animals and connect with the communities. There was one man living on the very edge of the wetlands who absolutely adored his large, golden canines but couldn’t feed them and treat them they way they deserved. TEARS built him a kennel and helped him out with dog food. The man was so grateful, he put his palms together and dipped his head in a sign of extreme and humble thanks.

In the next township of Mountain View, we came across a man who adored his massive pit bull, a canine who was quite obviously not fixed. The dog’s homemade sweater was connected to the chain around his neck and had felt letters sewn on spelling “I’m so hood”. It was just too perfect an ensemble. The owner reeked of booze and had an odd smear of white surrounding his mouth. He insisted that he’d never taken his dog to a fight, but he’s killed 13 dogs before. And he took impeccable care to pair his fella with only the most worthy pit bull ladies, spreading the good bloodlines he called it. In this community, it’s common that the men keep incredibly virile and dangerous dogs to solidify their own manly image. This was a case that would take weeks for TEARS to work, and they began by talking about dog fight victims to get on this guy’s sappy side. We watched from afar at their wicked skills of coercion.