In less than two weeks at least three domestic cats have suffered painful deaths due to poisoning with the illegal substance Two Step.
One kitten was killed in the past week at a complex on Cornelius Street in Weltevreden Park. The owner of the kitten, Veron Luboya, said,
“This is our fourth cat that has died in the past two years. It is also one of the 12 cats that have been poisoned in the last eight months.”
He explained how difficult it was to tell his two-year-old daughter that her beloved kitten won’t be coming back from the doctor.
Luboya took the kitten Black Jack to Roodepoort SPCA.
He said on arrival, the SPCA member said they could smell the Two Step on the kitten’s body.
According to Fanus Kritzinger, a veterinary specialist, the common poison used during robberies to poison an animal, is called Temik, commonly known as Two Step, a poisonous granule product used by agricultural farmers to control pests.
If an animal ingests it, it dies.
In another case, Wendy Steyn’s two cats were poisoned in her complex in Bellairs.
Her first cat, Fuzzy (one-and-a-half years old) died on 10 March.
Steyn explained that they were playing together in the garden for about an hour.
“My domestic worker saw her run in and said she was shaking. When I picked her up, she was hardly breathing, foam was coming out of her mouth and her legs had become limp,” said Steyn.
By the time she was halfway to the vet, Fuzzy had tragically passed away. He was cremated at the vet.
Soon afterwards on 20 March, her second beloved cat, Autumn, didn’t come home for breakfast one morning. Steyn found her dead in her neighbour’s yard.
“This time I asked that they perform an autopsy. He called back shortly afterwards and confirmed that he could clearly see the poison known as Two Step in her stomach.”
In all three instances, the complexes in question, allow pets and have many cats roaming around.
In Steyn’s case, it is only her two cats that have been poisoned. She reported the poisoning to Douglasdale police and Randburg SPCA.
Two dogs were also poisoned at a home in Hummingbird Avenue, Allens Nek on 16 March.
Read more here : Dogs suffer painful deaths
Debbie Kegel, a senior inspector at Randburg SPCA said, ” Two Step is an illegal substance. It should not be in residential homes. Dogs are usually poisoned if there is a robbery or they bark too much… but in the case of cats, it is definitely malicious poisoning and in both cases, it is against the Animal Cruelty Act.”
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