Pet carcass scandal
02-12-2009 By Alex Eliseev and Jennifer Bruce, The Independent Online, South Africa
The white Nissan bakkie comes to a halt. A man climbs out, puts on an apron and a pair of gloves and removes the blanket covering a heap of dead cats and dogs. Grabbing them by the legs - straining with the weight of the larger ones - he throws them to the ground, one on top of the other in a neat pile. Once the job is done, he drops some leftover rubbish on the animals, closes the back door of the bakkie and returns to the passenger seat.
The Star can reveal that animals at the site are left out in the open
An employee from the Randfontein SPCA pulls a dead dog from the back of a bakkie and throws it on the ground at the Randfontein dump. Photo: Jennifer Bruce, The Star.
The blue cross of the SPCA logo on the vehicle stands out in the grim Randfontein landfill site west of Joburg - a place where hundreds, if not thousands, of animal remains are left to rot or be harvested by human scavengers.
Despite municipal rules which dictate that any animal dumped at the site should be placed in a trench and buried "immediately" - and the SPCA's insistence that even "in death animals are treated with dignity" - The Star can reveal that animals at the site are left out in the open for weeks, sometimes until they are fully decomposed. This, along with pools of blood and piles of animal waste discarded by abattoirs, is a major health hazard to communities in or near the dump, and to the environment.
Another threat is the random discarding of syringes, swabs, surgical blades, drips and half empty bottles of drugs like Euthapent, used to euthanase sick or old animals. It is suspected that these may emanate from vets in the area.
A pile of dogs, cats and general rubbish lies dumped on the ground by an employee from the Randfontein SPCA. Photo: Jennifer Bruce, The Star.
The Randfontein municipality has confirmed that "an intervention" is under way to wall off the landfill site, boost access control and increase the policing of bylaws. It admits that, in most cases, it does not know what kind of animal waste is dumped there, despite the "close proximity of the informal settlement". It maintains that an agreement is in place with the SPCA - which charges a fee for disposing of pets - but that the council's waste management unit should be called in to bury the carcasses.
The NSPCA - which oversees the country's SPCA branches - says the agreement states that the municipality is responsible for burying the animals and that the findings of The Star's three-week investigation are "shocking".
Spokeswoman Christine Kuch points out "it is the duty of the SPCA to ensure procedures are carried out satisfactorily, including how the carcasses are handled through to the covering of them". Because of the "enormous expense" incurred by incinerating, and the lack of such facilities, burial of animals is "widely practised". However, "decorum, respect and ethical treatment is required".
Kuch says there are several abattoirs in the area that could be responsible for the dumping of animal remains and disputed that the SPCA was responsible for any of the medical waste dumped there.
The revelations come four months after a similar scandal broke out in Humansdorp, Eastern Cape, after piles of dead animals were discovered at a dumping site. It also coincides with a massive crackdown by the Green Scorpions on medical waste after the discovery of a 300-ton stash in the Free State town of Welkom last week.
A cat carcass that was dumped at the back of the Randfontein Municipal Rubbish Dump instead of it being incinerated. Photo: Jennifer Bruce, The Star.
The Star has learnt from a senior SPCA source that while there are strict guidelines for euthanising animals, individual branches have discretion on how to dispose of the bodies. Some pay private companies to incinerate while others strike agreements with municipalities.
A dog carcass that was dumped at the back of the Randfontein Municipal Rubbish Dump instead of it being incinerated. Photo: Jennifer Bruce, The Star.
Jenny Blight, a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an expert in landfill site management, says dumping of animals is on the rise. She warns that a liquid produced through decomposition of a body is poisonous to humans and the ecosystem if it finds its way into surface or ground water.(Bron: http://www.iol.co.za/)
(Bron foto's: Independent Online)
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