Durban and Coast SPCA has recently come under fire because of this policy. Animal adoption and rights organisation are outraged by the policy and many animal lovers expressed their dismay on its Facebook page last week.
“That is not our policy at Toti SPCA. We do home pitbulls, but we conduct very strict pre-home checks,” said manager, Tracey Girling. “We also assess the dog thoroughly and do strict post-home checks, to make sure the dog is being looked after properly. We do strict home checks for all our adoptions.”
The policy is not a new one and it has been in place for at least 10 years now, said Durban and Coast SPCA spokesman, Caroline Smith. “The pit bulls referred to are brought in as strays. They come in without any form of identification and their rightful owners do not claim them during the seven-day stray period.
We have absolutely no idea of their bloodline, breeding or background. The only inkling we have of its history is the undeniable fact that it was originally bred as a fighting dog.” If these strays are not adopted within the seven-day period, they are put down by Durban and SPCA and other SPCAs that follow this policy.
“This situation would be avoided altogether if only the extremely irresponsible owners of these strays came to claim them. One has to question what factors would prevent these owners from claiming their dogs, being that they’re such a sought-after breed.”
According to Animal Behaviour Consultants of South Africa’s Kathy Clayton, “pit bulls can be fantastic dogs, but it’s always a question of maybe”.
“Owing to this unpredictability and the fact that we know nothing about the dog’s history, we feel it would be irresponsible to re-home them to families,” said Caroline.
President of the Pit Bull Federation of South Africa, Jeanette Erasmus, agreed these strays should not be put up for adoption.
