Do the SAPS know about the APA?
(We have a serious problem when the police, the people assigned the duty of upholding the law, seem to look the other way when it comes to animals. Whether it is in ignoring the lawbreakers who light fireworks in the presence of animals, or obvious abuse in the cased detailed below, it seems the rule of law does not apply to animals in South Africa. It’s about time we made the Police Service accountable for doing their jobs. I sometimes wonder if many police even know about the Animal Protection Act? When you have read the account below from Ann, please go to The Hopeful Forum and let us and the police know what you think… animalman)
I received a call to say a horse was being led along our Provincial road. It had a rope round the neck and someone sitting in the back of a moving bakkie was holding on to the rope whilst some idiot was walking behind beating the light out of the horse. By the time I reached her she had walked about 2-3 Km but now for the really awful part.
This mare had in fact been in an accident on the night of the 14th January (eight days previously) and had sustained severe internal injuries and fractures to her jaw, knocked her teeth out and was still bleeding profusely from her mouth, her tongue swollen and bloody and just awash with flies. The bakkie which had a smashed windscreen and dent on the roof was the same one which had initially driven into her. The stench from this poor horse’s rotting flesh was simply awful. The owner of the horse is untraceable.
The driver says he not only reported the accident on Thursday evening to the police but he went back the next day to show them where the injured horse was (in a disused house at the bus depot about half a kilometer from Genadendal). He asked the police to contact us and he claims he went back 3 times. Obviously the horse had to be put out of her misery and awful suffering but I am now wanting to take on the SAP. I am absolutely sick and tired of the fact that they totally ignore the Animals Protection Act. In my experience they do not believe they have any responsibility to enforce any law relating to animals. They absolutely never inform us of any situation of cruelty / abuse and yet they must encounter many cases as they drive around.
Ann Andrews
Nothing the human race does any more shocks and surprises me, but I must admit that at the time of reading this, I had convinced myself that people couldn’t sink any lower. Boy, did I have a VERY rude awakening. I think the greatest insult to pay anyone is to tell them to stop acting like a human, because animals certainly DON’T do things like this.
Certain people DO NOT care about the sanctity of life – animals and people alike, and I am not just talking about South Africa. It is a worldwide pandemic (yes – I mean pandemic – which means something that affects the world – and cruelty is a very, very insiduous and very disturbing trend.) Cruelty cannot be a sickness, because SOOOO many people do it because they enjoy it, or they just couldn’t give a &)(*&) about the hurt that they cause.
The police have a job to do, not just protecting the people of our country, but the animals as well. That is why there is an Animal Protection Act. This is a law and they are there to enforce it, and if they don’t, that means that they are not doing the job that they are paid to do. In the normal world (certainly in my job), if you don’t do what you are paid to do, you get FIRED !!!!!!
FIRE THESE SOB’s AND GET POLICE IN THAT CAN DO THE JOB !!!
The penalties (fines and jail time) are not nearly harsh enough. They must be increased tenfold, and the punishments MUST be carried out. The message must get out there that this is MOST CERTAINLY not acceptable.
Both – incompetent and dont care – to care might just involve a bit of PT
and work – both foreign to our so called SAP – what a dreadful story – pity
the driver did not report it to a welfare organisation more promptly – we
must remember that it is not in most blacks culture to care about animals –
I wish we could change this. So much cruelty and so few to try and prevent
and curb it. I wonder when it will ever stop – I fear never and if we keep trying it MUST make a difference – even if only small.