Various animal stories made us sad and angry during the course of 2015. Here are the four animal stories that pulled at our heart strings in 2015.
An innocent Burmese python was used by a traditional healer to scam a man out of R2.5 million. The healer and his two assistants were arrested in Honeydew on 13 March. The traditional healer claimed the hefty price in order to heal his child of a life-threatening aliment. A 10m-long python was confiscated by the Roodepoort SPCA.
On 20 July an unknown number of bunnies were kept in cardboard boxes for two and a half hours at the Lifestyle pet store in Randpark Ridge. Two lunch-time visitors happened to walk past the box. After their lunch they went to complain about the bunnies. The manager, Ian Scheepers said that the bunnies were brought to the store that way. Randburg SPCA investigated the matter.
Randburg SPCA animals were moved to a safe place after a fire broke out on 11 November. The fire department was called around 8.30am when the fire broke out. The fire moved to the organisation’s containers. update article The fire was allegedly started next door by backyard mechanics.
On 12 November a van was hijacked outside of Shaggies Dog Parlor in Ferndale. To make matters worse, a Maltese cross called Chester, was in the van at the time. According to the co-owner of the parlor, Gerd Schoeman, he had just put the dog in the van to go and drop him off at his owner, when two men approached. One of the men got in to the van and raced off. The owner of Chester, Betty Lidbetters urged people to keep looking for her furry friend.