Following the peaceful gathering by supporters of the Ban Animal Trading South Africa (Bat SA) group, the West Rand Pet and Bird Farm landowners agreed to a meeting.
“We had quite a constructive meeting, and besides the landowners and ourselves, a representative of the Roodepoort/ Krugersdorp SPCA was also present.
The crux of the matter is that the owners really want to keep bringing feet into their business, and are willing to clean up their act,” said Smaragda Louw from Bat SA.
She added that the owners also confirmed their willingness to work with the SPCA, and said, “We told them that we will continue telling our supporters to not support their business until they stop selling live animals, including fish. If they do not comply with that, we will not hesitate to close them down.”
Louw said that they would really like to see the pet shop continue in business, and do not want to be the cause of anyone losing their jobs. “We cannot condone the business making money from cruelty, but, should the pet shop stop selling live animals, we would love to help them to become a Bat SA approved pet shop, which will guarantee a lot more business, as we would then punt their business on all our social media platforms,” she explained.
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She confirmed that they will continue with their protest actions against the pet shop until the matter is resolved, one way or the other. But, this is only the first step in a very long process, and Louw said, “Changes will not be happening overnight, and, even though it is very frustrating, we are very happy with the positive attitude from everyone involved.
We will be having another meeting in about six weeks’ time.”
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