FILE PHOTO: PIXABAY
The National Council of SPCAs said it’s considering the legal route to ascertain why hundreds of wildebeest are allegedly cooped up at an SA National Defence Force (SANDF) military base in the Free State.
This followed what it said were “serious animal welfare concerns about the hundreds of overstocked Black Wildebeest” the organisation said were kept at the SANDF's Barney Molojoane School of Engineers in Kroonstad.
The animal welfare organization said it visited the base on 11 August 2023 and found more than 300 wildebeest, of which at least nine were dead.
It said from as early as 23 August 2023 until May 2024, it had written to the SANDF – as well as then-defence minister Thandi Modise and the chief of the SANDF – four times, asking for an intervention.
No response was received on all occasions.
In its letter, the organization said the SANDF should consider its latest correspondence this week as “a notice of imminent legal proceedings”.
The NSPCA said it was unclear how the wild animals ended up on a mere 200 hectares of SANDF land, allegedly with very little water and no supplementary feed.
Executive director of the National Council of the SPCAs, Marcelle Meredith, said in the statement that on another visit on 28 May 2024, “it was clear that there is no plan and the base has no indication of anything that should happen”.
The NSPCA said it was pondering legal proceedings to force the SANDF to act and to commit to a timeframe for when some animals will be live captured and translocated.
Algoa FM News reached out to SANDF spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini for comment.
