Don’t dump your pets

A DURBAN resident feels the pet dumping situation is dire, and people need to be warned about the hazards of this cruel practice.

According to Lynne Goodman, people are battling to feed their pets, faced with the ever-rising cost of living, and more and more are being dumped to suffer lonely, often painful, deaths.

She said at the end of last year two kittens, not old enough to leave their mother, were removed from a retirement home in Umbilo and left in a field below the Durban Botanic Gardens. The babies had no chance of survival and disappeared without trace.

“Soon afterwards, a tabby female was discarded at the Orchid House in the Gardens. She was clearly an affectionate housecat, purring and head butting when approached, but soon became so traumatised by the strange environment that she went on the run – no longer able to trust people and in danger of starving to death.

“A few years ago a tame tomcat was seen being thrown through the back gate of the Durban Botanic Gardens. He disappeared for months until he was found collapsed under a bench, skeletally thin,” said Lynne.

She said the cat had clearly been too frightened of the resident cats to come out of hiding for food, and he had developed such a severe allergy to the plants that his eyes were so swollen he couldn’t see.

“He responded to a kindly voice and staggered towards some food put out for him. But when he was taken to the vet he was diagnosed with advanced kidney failure and had to be put to sleep,” she said.

Lynne said most recently a friendly black and white female started feeding with a colony in the Warwick Triangle. She soon went missing and it was feared that being tame, she was an easy target.

The dumped tabby has since been located and rescued, but if nobody gives her a home she too will have to be euthanised.

“Those who dump animals are not only inflicting the cruellest fate on their pets, but are also liable for prosecution,” said Lynne.

Judi Gibson of the Animal Anti-Cruelty League said: “Placing an animal to fend for itself in any environment is recognised as cruelty and abuse. The abandonment of an animal is an offence as legislated in the Animals Protection Act (71 of 1962).”

When the owners of any animal deliberately abandon it in circumstances likely to cause the animal unnecessary suffering, they are guilty of an offence and liable to conviction – with a fine or imprisonment.

“If you care about your pets, it is far kinder to have them put to sleep than inflict the torment of being abandoned,” said Lynne.

She said a spokesperson for the SPCA said the organisation would much prefer that people took their unwanted cats to the SPCA gates and leave them safely in the after-hours cages, with no questions asked, rather than dump them in strange places.

There is a strict limit on the number of cats in the Durban Botanic Gardens, where the management is concerned about the safety of the birds.

Curator Martin Clement strongly condemns dumping as not only cruel but highly irresponsible. He said action would be taken against any offender.