FRIEDENHEIM – He had been hanging from his back leg for days when he was finally rescued. A dog caught in a snare was rescued on December 12 by the Mpumalanga Animal Crime Watch (MACW).
Founding member Mr JK Klopper, said he received a call from residents who had heard the dog’s frantic cries. The report came in just after 18:00 on that Thursday night, and it took Klopper and his volunteers 40 minutes to locate the injured animal.
Klopper found the dog, subsequently named Rover, entangled in a wire snare and hanging from its back leg and hips. He said, “ It was safe to cut the wire and after about 20 minutes the animal was wrapped up and ready to be carried out. It took some time to work our way through the dense bush but it was worth all the effort. The poor dog was totally dehydrated. He was so weak he could not even sit up to drink.” According to him, Rover could have been hanging in this state for a few days, based on how thin he was.
Rover’s rescue prompted a further investigation into the hills of Friedenheim. Within half an hour, MACW found and removed 20 snares. The property borders on private game reserves Likweti and Tinstsaba. “What was noticeable from tracking through this area for another week,” said Klopper, “was that there were few signs of buck or other small game.” This, he explained, was unusual for such a bushy area. He came across a clearing littered with thousands of porcupine quills, but could not date them to determine whether it was an old slaughter spot or was still in use by poachers.
Earlier in December, MACW also confiscated a large fishing net which was found in one of the private dams. This was removed and the surviving fish released into the dam.
“We need to go back and clear the area. We will go out in full force to take out the remaining snares,” said Klopper. The group is planning its Lowveld operations for 2014 and individuals or groups who wish to become part of the MACW Bush Warriors, a volunteer group that does snare removal, can visit the organisation’s website at www.macw.co.za
Read about Klopper’s first discovery of the extent of small game poaching in Burnside, and the losses suffered by game farmers in the area due to this.
