Baby dassies euthanised
PAULSHOF - FreeMe Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre in Paulshof had to euthanise three infant dassies that were caught in a fire in Bassonia, south of Johannesburg.
Bassonia resident, Belinda Long has been feeding the feral cats, dassies and mongooses in her area for four years. She also erected a few shelters made from plastic and wood for the animals.
Long explained that there are also a few homeless people who take shelter in the area where she feeds the animals. On Good Friday Long arrived at the shelters to find them burnt to the ground. She quickly realised that while no cats or mongooses had been harmed, three baby dassies that had been in a burrow at the time of the fire were severely burnt.
Long transported the dassies to FreeMe in the hope that the rehabilitation centre could save them.
Unfortunately due to the severity of the burns, and especially the damage to their eyes and eyelids, the dassies had to be euthanised.
“I was so heart sore,” Long said. “I just knew I had to get help for these dassies.”
Long suspects that one of the homeless people who had previously had altercations with her about the animal shelters was the one who started the fire.
Gideon Morar, an inspector for the Johannesburg Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said that the organisation will be pursuing a case of animal cruelty against the individual who allegedly set the shelters on fire.
“Any cruelty to animals is against the law and we will be bringing criminals like this to book,” he said.
Morar suspects that the reason for the fire may have been related to superstition. “The SPCA deals with a lot of superstition killings,” Morar said. “Our priority is to educate people that certain animals like owls, cats and snakes are not evil.”
