The Monash South Africa campus has become a haven for feral cats in the Ruimsig area, according to Jaco Booysen, operational manager at Residence 6 on Tuesday 12 November.
This follows the Roodepoort SPCA being called out to the residence on Monday night 11 November to catch a feral, allegedly cancerous cat called Snowy. When inspector Kay Engelbrecht finally got a hold of Snowy, she found that the cat’s ear was cut off and that it was partly shaved. Some scarring indicates that her paws might have been tied.
“When I inspected the cat, the whole skin around the ear was off.”
Unfortunately, Snowy escaped her grip more than three times and finally got away, and Engelbrecht was asked to return the following morning.
Together with inspector Charmaine Joubert and the Record, Engelbrecht returned on Tuesday morning, based on the areas where the cat is usually seen.
A lot of blood and a potential sleeping spot was found, but Snowy was nowhere in sight.
The Record then approached Booysen for comment on both the current cat situation and a previous incident where a cat was tortured by students on campus.
He said that he was “so upset” when he heard about what had happened with the previous cat that was reported on in the Record and The Citizen.
“The students that live here are so involved with these cats that they call me at night when the cats fight among each other.
“No one living here would do something like that.”
Booysen’s interest with and responsibility for the cats was evident in his office space — inside, cats were sleeping on mops and a couch and bags of cat food were heaped in a corner. Outside, bowls with food and water were put out. Booysen also told the SPCA that he has collaborated with an organisation and that [most of] the cats are now sterilised.
The SPCA are still looking for Snowy and Engelbrecht and Joubert are increasingly worried about cruelty on campus.
“The problem is that, if he does not stop feeding the cats, they will remain drawn to this haven,” Engelbrecht later said.
“More cats will come, they’ll keep breeding on the premises and we’re afraid that the cruelty will continue.”
Monash South Africa have not commented on the situation to date. The Record has approached both marketing and communication officer Nomasiko Sibanda and executive director of advancement and corporate affairs André Lubbe, who’s mutual statement was to the tune of “we cannot comment”.
Lubbe later said that “the only campus spokesperson is the Pro-Vice Chancellor, Professor Ron Weber”.
