SAPS – DO YOUR JOBS, Uphold the APA!
Posted By animalman on February 23, 2010
Over the last few weeks, we have featured several cases of neglect and cruelty – Councillor Woods’ dog, who was starved, and her puppies died; Lucky Lucy who escaped with her life after being tied to a railway track; the little fox terrier buried alive, also named Lucky; the horse that was still being used to tow a vehicle after having been involved in a collision with the same vehicle; and lastly Maggie, the Rottie who was being dragged by her neck in a state of starvation when she was rescued. There were plenty of others that we did not feature, and we have no doubt plenty of others who either died or are still out there somewhere…
The causes of events like these are complex, in some cases negligence combined with ignorance, in others a lack of resources, in yet others a complete absence of common sense and sensitivity.
Whatever the causes, there is a significant problem when we see so many examples of this nature and their volume seems to be increasing, But we who work in animal welfare know this, we deal with it on a daily basis as we see so many animals being surrendered to shelters or abandoned. The death toll rises and we do not have the resources to stem the tide…
But we have another problem and it threatens the core of the society in which we live. A just society is one in which the civil liberties of all are defended equally, and the rule of law prevails to ensure this. Animal-loving people’s values are not being defended by our government. It does not matter that we are a minority. Democracy should be less about majority rule than about protecting the rights of minorities.
Fact is, the SAPS seem to be ignorant of the Animal Protection Act. We have had many reports where they seemed unaware of the laws as if they had never heard of the APA. In other cases, they simply refused to take down the particulars of the complainant, and follow-up is scarce if it ever happens. In addition, SAPS personnel have been known to walk straight past an animal which is clearly being neglected, as if it does not matter, since it is ‘only an animal’. We know the police are busy – after all, we have one of the highest crime rates in the world – but to argue that animal legislation should be ignored because there are more important issues is to say that we should ignore rape because there are less rapes than robberies. It’s an absurd argument. If you are a law enforcer, your job is to enforce all laws.
While the existing APA is a document in need of revision to make it more in line with modern thinking, it is still workable as legislation as long as someone is actually aware of it and proactively identifying and proceeding against perpetrators of crime against animals. Our immediate problem is not the revision of the APA, it is getting the SAPS to DO THEIR JOBS.
To this end, we have made a forum available so that you, the animal-loving public, can have your say – make suggestions, discuss issues, make resources available, introduce strategies that have worked elsewhere, but most importantly, do something to change the world our animals live in. At the forum, there is a link to a petition.
I do not normally support petitions, but in this case the issue is large enough in scope and urgent enough to warrant our participation. You will find the link to the petition both on our Facebook Group and at the Forum. You will also find a link in both places to the Animal Protection Act in pdf format. Here is the Facebook Group link:
Please do not consider the petition to be the focal point of this campaign. Get involved, particularly if you are knowledgeable in the areas of the law and government. This will not be an overnight campaign, it is going to require commitment over a long period of time.
I will be involving people at certain stages of this campaign – people with specialist skills and knowledge who know how to get the attention of key personnel on government. If you believe you can add some value, contact me at derek@hopeful.ws.
A Light in their Darkness,
Derek
Hopeful Homeless




























