Words: Ashraf Hendricks / GroundUp
A handful of four-legged companions from Vrygrond in Cape Town got to test out a new bicycle taxi for pets run by the organisation, AfriPaw. The aim of the initiative is to provide access to the animal clinics for pets living in under-resourced communities like Vrygrond.
We noticed that people were unable to come to the clinic because their pets didn't want to walk the distance, says Anel Wesson, Director and Co-Founder of AfriPaw. Once a month the organisation brings a mobile clinic to the parking lot at Capricorn primary school where they offer vaccinations, sterilisations, and a number of other health checks.
Wesson says they found that some pet owners in the area were too old to walk to the mobile clinic or they were scared of being robbed or attacked along the way. She says that after they saw a number of people bring their pets to the clinic in trolleys, they began to toy with the idea of starting a pet taxi.
Wesson says they needed the taxi to be simple and cheap so it could easily be operated by people from their community. While this is still the testing phase of the project, she says they are looking into which bicycle works best to pull the weight of the animals. The cart was built and designed by 4Evr Plastic Products pro bono.
