Gruesome discovery as SPCA rescues snared dog

The Kloof & Highway SPCA rescued a tan and white Africanis dog from a snare in Molweni on Thursday, 23 July.

Staff at the SPCA received a call from a resident who reported that he had heard a dog crying in the valley in the Molweni area near his home.

Inspector Cassi MacDonald, Trainee Inspector Pamela Zondi and Sydney Nkomo went out to the area where they were met by Alaine Crawford, another concerned resident, who had been searching with his own dog, Isis, since Wedneday evening.

The four searched in the thick bush for hours until they reached a particularly dense section where they had believed the crying had been coming from. They had to force their way through the dense vegetation and crawl at times on their hands and knees through the bush. They came across a number of snares in this part of the bush. Sadly two dogs had already died as a result of the snares. The one dog’s body was already decaying and had obviously been there for some time, and the other dog had passed away very recently.

Determined more than ever now to locate the crying dog, the Inspectors pushed on until they came across the dog with his left paw caught in a snare.

The Inspectors cut the dog free and gave the dog water to drink before transporting him back to the Kloof & Highway SPCA to be seen to by the vet.

The dog will be kept for the mandatory seven days before he will be put up for adoption.

“Snares are one of the simplest traps to make, cheap to produce and easy to set in large numbers and they are a huge problem in many areas because of this. A snare traps an animal around the neck or the body and gradually tightens around the animal the more it tries to struggle and get free, ultimately resulting in a long and painful death for an animal, said Lisa Gadd, PRO for Kloof SPCA.