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Stray dogs at a shelter.
Animal welfare organisations in Gauteng say they’ve seen an influx of stray animals coming through their doors since the start of the festive season.
Officials at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Tshwane say the spike in the number of pet dumping has doubled this season, these include cats and dogs.
It says most had their fight or flight response triggered by fireworks displays during the Christmas and year end celebrations.
Tebogo Maredi, who runs an animal shelter in Onderstepoort, says some animals had to be euthanized.
“There was a lot of cases and more especially in various veterinary practices and the worst part is, they didn’t have enough resources to attend to all the cases. So, the best thing they could do and help us with was euthanasia because we didn’t have enough space because we were full to the brim. So, we couldn’t unfortunately take some of them in, so we just had to euthanize some of them.”
Meanwhile, the SPCA says they have also seen an increased number of strays, surrendered and abandoned animals since the start of the festive period.
SPCA spokesperson Veronica Greunen says, “It’s about doubled the numbers and at the Centurion branch we took about 82 and just cats this month. This side was 139 give or take. The dogs went up to 260 here excluding the Centurion branch. So, our numbers have doubled from the 1st of December till now.”
