Animal Angle by Sheila McCallum

Journal of the Durban & Coast SPCA

www.spcadbn.org.za December 2013 ISSUE

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CONTENTS I nside? what’s

REGULARS

4 5-7 8 9 10-13 16 18 20 22-24 31

EDITORIAL - Shirley Bell PIGEON POST FROM THE DOG BOX - Chris Matheson PRECIOUS PETS DURBAN & COAST SPCA NEWS - Caroline Smith HUMANE EDUCATION PROJECT - Laura Pretorius From the Inspectorate - Claire Buisman LEGACY NEWS STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD WHISKERS Pupsky’s Page

FEATURES 14-15 Solution to the Yeti mystery? - Shirley Bell

12 COVER: Our Marketing Assistant, Lauren McCallum, with cute Fluffy, an adult male who was handed over to us as unwanted by his previous owners. Fluffy has an unusually gentle nature and was put up for adoption after passing his health check with flying colours. We are happy to announce that he has been booked by a loving new family. Despite our best efforts, our adoption rate remains a meagre 9%. Dear little Fluffy is typical of the unique animals, all desperate for new homes, that are available at SPCAs throughout South Africa.

Eseltjiesrus outreach

Eating raw fish: the high risk of contracting parasites - Shirley Bell

A different kind of Lawnmower

Mongoose man worried about safety of his animals

How a weeny vervet came into my life

Lynne feeds four feral cat colonies

SA Guide Dog Association: Dogs who perform services of love and change lives - Jill Seldon

Do you know what you are eating?

uShaka Sea World’s remarkable role in saving marine animals

SOS! (Save our spiders!)

Dog trapped in Kimberley’s Big Hole

- Sabrina Miles

Photo: Terence Hogben www.terencehogben.co.za

Editor........................................Shirley Bell Designed by.............................Flying Ant Designs, Durban, (031) 309 5385 Printed by..................................Pen Print Durban, (031) 312 6371

Write to us at: P O Box 74495 Rochdale Park 4034 Switchboard: Inspectorate: Adoptions:

031 5796500 031 5796505 031 5796525

Fundraising: Boarding Kennels: Emergency after hours:

031 5796546 031 5796510 083 2126103

EDITORIAL Case No. 177 – cruelty beyond imagining

On the day I am writing this paragraph, Caroline sent me a photograph of the most appalling animal cruelty I have ever seen: a young dog found by our Inspector Roberts in a kennel in Newlands. Completely collapsed, it was lying in pain beyond imagining, skeletal beyond anything I have ever seen, its dear small body covered in such terrible sores and wounds that it must have been in agony. I cannot begin to describe what suffering this innocent creature must have been through. And it was still alive. It will be in my mind forever. It was humanely euthanased by our veterinarian… perhaps the first act of kindness in its small precious life. I am sitting at my computer with tears running down my face, helpless and angry and wondering how our Inspectorate manages to deal with cases as terrible as this. What courage it must take. It is not a picture we can show you. We will spare you that much, because the sight of this little body in such terrible prolonged agony is more than one can bear. Several people must have been aware of this relentless torture. One asks oneself again and again: What kind of person is capable of this kind of cruel, unspeakable behaviour? But we know the answer, don’t we? We might not like to think about it, but we do know. They are right here among us. It is important that such people are named and shamed. If you suspect cruelty to human or animal, do not keep silent. If we turn our faces away and do nothing because we “can’t bear it”, it is not only cowardly, but we make ourselves complicit in deeds of barbarism. Please appeal to the relevant authorities for harsher punishments for animal cruelty, for fewer suspended sentences, especially in cases of appalling cruelty, and for the names of all miscreants to be widely published so that they are publicly revealed for what they are.

Discarded bait and tackle

New plastic bag dispensers have been placed along the promenade at uMlanga beach for the benefit of fishermen. They can now pull out bags for their bait and tackle waste instead of leaving this on the beach where it has long been a hazard to both birds and humans. Brian Wright, manager of the Umhlanga Urban Improvement Precinct, said that much concern had been voiced by members of the public concerning lack of thoughtfulness shown by many fishermen regarding disposal of detritus from their fishing activities, and the organisation had consequently decided to help provide facilities for fishermen to enable them to dispose appropriately of waste. Eight dispensers have been installed at points where there is access to the beach.

The Cinnamon Trust: a compassionate UK model for elderly pet owners We would so like to see care homes and retirement complexes in our country willing to allow people to keep their pets when they are obliged to give up their homes and independence.

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

Mary Koen, our Bequest Liaison Officer, finds that residents are delighted to interact with an animal when she takes a pet along with her on visits to retirement establishments. A model we can presently only dream about is the one presented by the Cinnamon Trust in the UK. This is a specialist national charity for people in their later years and for their beloved animal companions. Its primary objective is to “respect and preserve the treasured relationship between owners and their pets”. The Cinnamon Trust was founded by Averil Jarvis in 1985 and named after her Corgi, Cinnamon, who died in her 17th year. There are 1,250 care homes and retirement complexes on the Cinnamon Trust’s Pet-friendly Care Home Register list of retirement housing and complexes that are happy to accept residents with pets. The organisation will even take responsibility for the lifetime care of a bereaved pet if an arrangement to do so has been made in advance of the owner’s death. More than 15,000 Cinnamon Trust volunteers throughout Britain help provide care for the animals by walking the dogs, fostering pets in their homes when pet owners are in hospital, fetching supplies of pets’ food, cleaning out bird cages and aquaria, and helping to give all the animals the highest possible quality of life and environment. Statistics show that the Trust is helping over 32,000 people a year. This involves an average of over 41,000 animals. They also run two sanctuaries themselves in Devon and Cornwall. Because there are so many outstanding facilities, it is not easy to find annual winners for the Cinnamon Trust Pet-friendly Awards, but in 2013 one of the several award winners was The White House, which is set amid 18 acres of beautiful country environment with woodlands and paddocks. Pets belonging to residents include not only dogs, cats and the more common choices, but goats, kangaroos, pigs, peacocks, ducks, tortoises and exotic birds. Another winner was the Old Vicarage in a pretty rural village in Dorset. The old Vicarage has 40 residents, many of whom have some form of dementia. Among other animals at the Old Vicarage, there are three dogs: Bob the Blob, a much-loved and very large Golden Retriever; Bella, a black-and-white Spaniel; and Toggle, a black-and-tan Daschhund. Toggle belongs to Sheila, who likes to go off walking. Toggle wears a tracking device, which means that Sheila’s locality can always be discovered via the computer. Bella belongs to an elderly lady who lost her only daughter and is alone except for her beloved dog. “Bella is everything to me,” she says. However, many pet-friendly facilities are in cities and towns. Pets are vitally important for people living on their own. Loneliness and even feelings of despair can be kept at bay by the matchless loving attention and loyalty of an animal. It is even found that people suffering from dementia who can no longer recognise family and friends will often respond to the attention of

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a pet, recalling its name and communicating with it. Readers will recall that we published an article, “Care dogs allowed” (The Animal Angle, August 2011) about Durbanite Jean Cronwright, who is trying to interest local owners and managers of complexes and care establishments in allowing residents to have animals or, at the very least, to take on a couple of animals that would belong to the establishment and bring some joy to those residents who find it difficult to live without their pets. It would be good if we could know the names and localities of any complexes or retirement establishments that would allow pets so that we could keep a register of them on our Durban & Coast SPCA website. Please let Mary Koen know if you come across any such enlightened accommodation. Her contact details at our SPCA are: mary@spcadbn.org,za (031)57996534. If you would like to see photographs of animals and their owners living happily in pet-friendly residential facilities listed by The Cinnamon Trust in the UK, go to www.cinnamon.org.uk. And don’t fail to let us know if you come across any pet-friendly accommodation for retired people in our own country. Together, we can help bring about more compassionate attitudes. Shirley Bell shirleybell@mweb.co.za

PIGEON POST From Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary Dear Shirley Thank you so much for the exposure you gave to Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary in the latest issue of The Animal Angle. This helps to raise awareness of the plight and needs of donkeys, surely the most maligned and misunderstood of working animals. We have already had a query regarding support from one of your readers, and now many more people are aware of us. We regularly get asked to help with a donkey situation in other parts of the country and intend compiling a database of individuals and organisations that work to improve the welfare of these animals. We would appreciate the names, contact details and location of any such that you or your readers know of – private, knowledgeable individuals as well as organisations. Often a situation arises, and the person handling it is unaware of help nearby. Good luck with your work - the Durban & Coast SPCA is one to be proud of! Strength to you as editor, and to all the SPCA staff and supporters. Warm wishes Annemarie van Zijl Donkey Welfare and Adoptions Eseltjiesrus Donkey Sanctuary McGregor Tel: 023 625 1593 www.donkeysanctuary.co.za A permanent refuge for elderly, abused and neglected donkeys. Promoting the welfare and status of donkeys through a culture of caring. Saving the life on one animal will not change the world But for that one animal, their world is changed forever. I have cared about donkeys since childhood, when a few of these gentle animals ran freely on a green common near my home in Port Elizabeth. I have read about the tragic plight of donkeys being trekked through KwaZulu-Natal from the north all the way to Lesotho to lives of unremitting hardship as beasts of burden in the mountains. Their lives are often short and painful. It breaks one’s heart. I would so like to see an Eseltjiesrus in KZN and feel this should not be impossible. There are probably sugar farmers who would not be averse to providing the land, but, as well as funding from the public, it would take a lot of caring and commitment, as well as the kind of selfless devotion that is shown by Eseltjiesrus in McGregor in the Cape. Ed.

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Praise for our new cattery As a result of receiving the invitation to visit the new cattery, I popped in yesterday to see it. Job very well done. The only problem is that the cats won't want to be adopted because their new home is so comfy and super awesome! Ten out of ten to all involved. Regards, Elvia Els

Animal Cruelty Hi, Caroline I’m disappointed that my letter (below) was not published in any of the newspapers I sent it to. I’m furious that this sadist is free, and that no name or photograph appeared in any newspaper report. Why is more concern not shown by the press in cases like this? I have been following three high profile animal cruelty cases in America. A Polish man living in America who tortured a puppy, Doe, is out on $500,000 bail, and the last time I checked there were 75,000 signatures on a petition asking for a harsh penalty. Freckles and Patrick are two other cases worth checking on the Internet. Judging by the terrible cruelty that is becoming so common in our country, many South Africans do not see animals as sentient beings. My letter to the press about this case went along these lines: Dear Sirs I am sending this letter to The Independent on Saturday, the Sunday Tribune, and The Mercury in the hope that at least one of these papers will publish it. A few weeks ago, there was an article in The Independent on Saturday regarding a man in Point Road, Durban, who savagely beat two Jack Russells with a baton and then threw their broken (still living) bodies into a wheelie bin for collection as though they were household rubbish. Why? Because they had defecated in the flat in which he was lodging. I contacted the SPCA (spcadbn.org.za) this week on their Facebook page to find out whether he had been charged and learnt that he had been fined R12,000 or six months in prison, suspended for five years. Because he had been in custody for five weeks, the magistrate said that the time in prison might have taught him a lesson, so he is scot free with no fine and only a piddly five weeks behind bars for his disgusting crime. What sort of ‘sentence’ is that? This is certainly no deterrent for those sadists in our society who think nothing of torturing animals. This man should have been punished severely and should have been named and shamed in the newspapers, with his face there for us all to see. What we need in Durban is a special court for the many animal cruelty cases. We also need pathetic and archaic laws to be reviewed, and we need those magistrates who give light sentences (or none at all) to have more compassion for helpless, innocent creatures.

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

A mild tap on the wrist hardly inculcates any respect for the law. The following quotation from William Ralph says it all: “We have enslaved the rest of animal creation and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that, beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion they would depict the devil in human form.” Vera Taylor Glenashley Vera, you can imagine what it is like for our inspectors, who have to deal with barbarous cruelty and then have very light or suspended sentences handed down by the courts. Any inspector will confirm that one never gets used to man’s capacity for ruthless brutality. Some inspectors reach a point where they cannot take it any longer, yet the job they do is a vitally important one, requiring people who are compassionate and strong, and brave enough to cope. To find these qualities in the same person is not always easy. Images are left in the mind that will not go away. These brutally beaten dogs – as you will see from our Inspectorate report in this issue – were brain-damaged by the perpetrator and had several other severe wounds. They were found alive, but too severely tortured to survive. To end their suffering, they were euthanased by our veterinarian. As you will also see, we have named and shamed the perpetrator in this issue, along with others. Only public outrage is likely to bring sentences in line with the full weight permitted by present laws. Unsatisfactory as they are, these laws are nonetheless considerably improved from what they were a few years ago. Public concern is needed for further strengthening of penalties. Ed.

Caring about our vervet monkeys Hello, Shirley This is a personal note apropos your description in your last editorial of the monkey with a wound in his lower back. One of my regulars had such a wound, just above the tail, a circular open flesh wound about 12 cm in diameter. Over the weeks, I have seen it slowly healing over, and this morning it seemed to have closed up. He is not happy about my getting behind him to take a photo but I managed an “oblique” shot (see photograph). One doesn’t know the various routes they take on their foraging rounds, but it may be possible that if you live anywhere within a say 10-km radius of Glen Hills, he could well be your guy. Over the years I have seen many flesh wounds heal naturally. Vervets, to my unending admiration, are very stoical about their injuries. It must be their healthy lifestyle that permits healing to take place. Monkey rescue would most likely not come out if an injured monkey is fully mobile. Trapping may be more traumatic than the “natural” cure. (Just my ‘lay’ opinion). Thought you may find this of interest. Visit our website

PIGEON POST

I am including a picture of ‘my’ first spring baby. Regards Corrie Verbaan I live in Glenwood, so my injured vervet would have been a different individual. Just a few days ago, I saw an adult vervet with a large area of healed scar tissue in the left haunch and am hoping that this was the vervet I had seen a few weeks ago with gaping raw wound. Ed.

Kittens love their cat scratcher Here is a picture of my two kittens, who are absolutely loving their new ‘scratch gym’ which was won in your Charity Shop competition. They were adopted from the Durban & Coast SPCA and have given great joy to my husband and me. Their names are Picasso (boy) and Paloma (girl). They are such happy little creatures. We also have a female dog from your SPCA. She was brought in as unwanted, and we were so lucky to get her. Her name is Molly, and she is now five years old. She is a tremendous mother to the kittens. They are all such a joy to us. Jenny Gordon

Note the large healed wound on the back of this vervet monkey. Photograph: Corrie Verbaan

Picture of baby vervet from Corrie Verbaan

News from the NSPCA Farmer found guilty of Animal Cruelty

Leon James Villet, a farmer from the Kinross area in Mpumalanga, pleaded guilty to charges of cruelty to animals in the Standerton Magistrates’ Court on 1 November 2013. The NSPCA’s Farm Animal Protection Unit had charged him in terms of the Animal Protection Act. Charges related to the ill-treatment, terrifying, handling and loading of pigs in an inhumane manner and overloading them on the back of a utility vehicle. The incident took place at the Standerton sale yard in February 2013. Visual material taken at the scene was submitted as evidence. Leon Villet was observed being aggressive, obstructive and verbally abusive towards NSPCA personnel. He was sentenced to a fine of R20,000 or a prison sentence of 12 months, suspended for five years. The NSPCA emphasises yet again that cruelty to animals will not be tolerated. In this instance, it is acknowledged that this case went before the Court relatively quickly, but the outcome is disappointing in that Villet can continue his farming operations. However, he now has a criminal record and will be monitored.

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FROM THE DOG BOX

Our new chairman We welcome Neil Aubert as our new Durban & Coast SPCA chairman. Neil has been a dedicated volunteer for many years. Among other duties, he transports the large quantities of books offered at our popular Bluff book sales. Work done by our volunteers is inestimable. They are part of the warp and weft of our organisation, and their contribution is something we never overlook. Liz Chambers retires My exceptional secretary, Liz Chambers, retires at the end of December after thirteen years of fine service to the Durban & Coast SPCA. Thank you for your fantastic support throughout those years, Liz. You will certainly be greatly missed. Sterilisation programme We are happy to report that over two thousand township dogs have gone through the sterilisation programme sponsored by the Department of Agriculture and run by SPCAs. If one considers this in terms of the probable number of offspring (and their descendants) that could otherwise have been produced by these neutered animals, this number becomes even more significant than would appear. The dogs, which all have owners, are picked up at their homes and brought to our SPCA, where they are sterilised, de-wormed, vaccinated and dipped. They are returned to their owners on recovery. The Department of Agriculture programme was originally due to end in October 2013, but has been extended to March 2014. Our new nursery We are now running our own nursery and have a good selection of healthy plants on offer. With its wellkept gardens and green vistas, our SPCA is a haven of tranquillity in busy Springfield. Our work inevitably has its sad aspects, because we deal with issues that are often traumatic, but our home in Springfield reflects, rather, the happy achievements… the animals that do find new homes, the courageous interventions of our inspectors, the medical skill of our veterinarians, the devotion of our volunteers, the commitment of our staff, the work being done in schools by our SPCA Humane Education project. We also have excellent boarding kennels which are separate from those of dogs needing homes. Our SPCA is as bright and cheerful a place as we can make it, and visitors are always welcome. Beds for our dogs Our Beds for Dogs campaign was our best fundraiser ever and far surpassed our expectations. Our kennels now all have comfortable beds that are raised off the floor.

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

Coffee Cats Café People come back time and again once they have been to our Coffee Cats Café, which was recently placed among the top 100 coffee shops in KwaZulu-Natal. It is quiet and relaxing, with good food and reasonable prices. Dolphin Coast SPCA Our Dolphin Coast branch at Ballito continues to do really well under manager, Debbie Filmalter. Debbie is also a qualified inspector. Make sure you know the origin of your animal products Commercial factory farming is coming increasingly under scrutiny, and the plight of factory-farmed animals is of great concern to us. The very least that should be done is to ensure that farm animals are well-fed and appropriately housed, with plenty of room for natural movement and communication with their own kind. Readers will have noticed that the public is gradually becoming more aware of the choices meat-eaters need to be making regarding the conditions under which animals are bred and kept, the use of antibiotics, inhumane handling, and adrenalin-inducing final hours owing to fear. We owe it to factory-farmed animals not to be complicit in their inhumane treatment and can do this only by insisting on standards being set and adhered to. Readers will have noticed that the NSPCA is increasingly involved in court cases relating to the living conditions of factory-farmed animals, including the inhumane treatment of farmed crocodiles. Chris Matheson General Manager

The SPCA says farewell to Liz Chambers, who has been secretary to Chris Matheson for thirteen years. Liz’s quiet, efficient and supportive presence will be greatly missed.

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PRECIOUS PETS Mandy Marincowitz says: “We adopted Patches and Jack on 9 September 2012. Patches was six months old, and Jack was only six weeks old. They have been inseparable from day one. Patches is a gentle giant with a heart and soul as big as her body. Jack is our little watch dog, feisty, intelligent and so intuitive. They have fitted into our lives and home so perfectly and are loved and spoilt by all. Their daily walk, no matter what the weather, is a ritual in itself, with Jack squealing with delight and Patches leaping around while one is trying to get their leashes on, and then my husband is dragged around the block! Such happy pets in their forever home.”

Ronnie Scholtz says: “This is what my dogs, Bella, Chelsea and Rocky, get up to when the Dog School they attend goes out on their monthly walk. They love to swim in the dam in Umbilo Park. Bella is absolutely amazing. There is something special about adopting an older dog. They turn out to be really great pets.” Denise Sergeant of Benoni says: “Here is our beloved Axel when he was just over seven weeks old.”

Jenny Gordon’s Molly, Picasso and Paloma having an afternoon nap. (See Jenny’s letter in Pigeon Post.)

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Durban & Coast SPCA News CAROLINE SMITH

It’s official… Coffee Cats Café voted among the top cafés!

We are very proud that our Coffee Cats Café has been voted one of the top 100 café’s in KwaZulu-Natal by the Sunday Tribune’s SM Magazine. Well done to Mark for doing such a great job for us. If you have not yet been to Coffee Cats, it’s right here at our SPCA in Springfield Park and offers delicious food and great cappuccinos. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly, the service is really good, and the prices are excellent. Visit us and find out for yourselves.

NEW SPCA NURSERY

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

This is our newly established nursery, accessible during our normal opening hours (Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00; Saturday from 08:00 to 13:00). You will find a wide variety of plants, seedlings and herbs at great prices. We also sell potting soil, compost, pavers, pots and accessories. Do pay us a visit. The nursery is right next to our excellent Coffee Cats Café, so you can browse among the plants while your delicious refreshments are being prepared by Mark. Visit our website

DURBAN & COAST SPCA NEWS

Open Gardens turns out to be a beautiful experience Our Open Gardens took place on Saturday and Sunday, 19th and 20th October, and what a superb event it was. Six Durban North home owners generously, and bravely, opened their gardens to the public in order to raise funds for our SPCA. We would like to make special mention of Stuart Bastow who, as convenor of the Open Gardens event, sources the gardens and personally assists each of the home owners for months in advance to make sure that planning is kept on track for this prestigious event. Stuart has over 600 varieties of roses in his own garden, which is a show stopper on the day. We are also most grateful to Marshall Security for their sponsorship, which enabled us to produce street posters, flyers and tickets and in vital Caroline with Stuart Bastow of Stuartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ways made this event possible. Thank you, Barry and team at Marshall Landscapes and Roses and his lovely SPCA special, Emma Security, for your splendid contribution. We must also thank the public for their support and for visiting these stunning beautiful gardens despite quite heavy downpours on Saturday (not to mention a Currie Cup final!). The Durban North Garden Club did an amazing job with the really delicious treats on offer, and Danville Girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; High School volunteers were exemplary in assisting with the running of the tea garden. We are grateful to Glenore and Kensington Spar for their generous donations of items for the tea garden. We raised R32,000! I have no doubt that our Open Gardens is to become a much anticipated Durban calendar event. Watch this space for news of the 2014 event. I would also like to thank each of the homeowners for their greatly appreciated participation this year: Melissa Ditz, Lyn Nolan, Brad Jacklin, Megan Gore, and Arlene Vermaak. We are sourcing spectacular Durban North gardens for our 2014 event and appeal to you to consider opening your home, and heart, for the orphans in our care. If you would consider participating as an Open Gardens home owner, please contact Caroline on (031) 5796546.

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DURBAN & COAST SPCA NEWS

Our Umgeni Trail Run/Walk

Men’s 14km trail run winner Matthew Reid receives his prize money from Caroline… and donated it right back to our SPCA. Thank you, Matthew!

Trail Running is the new ‘craze’ in town. It has become hugely popular and has an enormous following in Durban. We hosted our first-ever Trail Run on Sunday, 15 September. Both START and FINISH were at our SPCA, and the trail was along the picturesque banks of the Umgeni river. We had over 304 entries on the day, which we thought to be a fantastic response. Thanks to this tremendous support and to our generous sponsors, we raised R33,000! Our sincere thanks go to the following sponsors: BSI Steel, Adroit Financial Planning, Moore Stephens, Bluff Meat Supply, Talisman Plant & Tool Hire, PPS, Prudential, Marriott, Sanlam Glacier, Palm Dune, Discovery, Jockey., 32Gi, Go Trail, Fast Fitness Gym, and Future Life. Special mention must be made of the team from Riverside Trail for the hard work and effort put into this event for us, and for their exceptional organisational skills, especially Alison Chadwick for her dedication and her passion for our cause, which contributed so significantly to the success of this event. A big ‘thank you’ to Bart Fokkens and Durban Green Corridor for cleaning and preparing the trail for us prior to the event.

Runner Rob Alderton had an ‘oopsie’ over the temporary foot bridge, but he took it in his stride and with great good humour.

TEAM SPCA: our own veterinarians, Dr Belinda Augustyn and Dr Gilson Muchopa Natasha Papini, winner of the Ladies’ 14km Trail Run

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

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includes dinner and great prizes

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FEATURE

Solution to the Yeti mystery? Shirley Bell

People love a mystery, especially one of mythical proportions. The yeti is one of these. Records of sightings of the yeti (also known as Meh-Teh by people indigenous to the region) go back more than two thousand years, although it seems to have emerged in the West only in the 19th century. Even Alexander the Great, who died in 323 BC, is recorded as having demanded from villagers in the Indus Valley that they see this mysterious man-like creature for themselves before reporting on it. Alexander was obviously a sceptic, but then his tutor was Aristotle, so perhaps his demand for proof is not too surprising. Since the reports of yeti sightings have always lacked conclusive evidence, they have been included in the realm of cryptozoology (‘crypto’ meaning ‘hidden’) which concerns animals whose existence has not been proven, but about which there is much anecdotal information. Cryptozoology also includes searches for animals, such as dinosaurs, which once lived, became extinct, and about which there continue to be periodic rumours that some such species might continue to exist in remote ecosystems. The yeti appears now to have taken a distinct step away from the cryptozoology categorisation, although this does not mean that the speculations over the likelihood of its being some man-like creature are anywhere near the truth. What has emerged relates to DNA findings, and these suggest that the yeti is likely to be associated with an ancient hybrid of polar bears. Early pre-Buddhist stories of some Himalayan communities tell of ape-like creatures covered in hair, but walking on two legs. In 1897, Lawrence Waddell, in Among the Himalayas, describes a large ape-like creature and also the prints it left in the snow. He thought it was some kind of large bear. During the twentieth century, the number of reports increased, and so did the colourful stories.

/ The Animal Angle / August 2013

In 1951, Eric Shipton, while attempting to climb Mount Everest, took photographs of large footprints in the snow at 6000 metres. And in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay came across similar footprints during their climbs. Tenzing’s father had twice reported seeing a huge largerthan-human figure in the distance. Regarding the footprints in the Himalayas, the endangered Himalayan brown bear can walk on two legs without any difficulty and in upright position a large adult brown bear would be taller than the average man. As to the footprints that seem extraordinarily human-like, although far too big to be homo sapiens: “The imprint in the snow of a hind paw coming over the front paw appears to have a hallux (big toe), especially when the bear is going slightly uphill so that the hind paw extends the overprint backward making a humanoidappearing track, elongating like a human foot but with a ‘thumb’.” In 2013, scientists from the Universities of Oxford and Lausanne put out a call for samples. A mitochondrial DNA analysis was subsequently undertaken on hair samples from an unidentified animal from Ladakh in northern India and another from Bhutan, 800 miles away. These were compared with samples from GenBank, the international repository of gene sequences. The big surprise was that there was a 100% match with a sample from the jawbone of an ancient polar bear that had been found in Svalbard in northernmost Norway. The jawbone dates back to between 40,000 and 120,000 years. The analysis, DNA testing and comparison with a database of other animal genomes costs about $2000 per single hair sample. Professor Bryan Sykes of Oxford University submitted the DNA results for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, and a book is also due for publication in 2014. Reports of yeti-type creatures in other parts of the world are by no means unusual: ‘Bigfoot’ and ‘Sasquatch’ in North America; ‘Mapinguari’ in South America; ‘Yowie’ in Australia; Am Fear Liath Mor (the big grey man) in Scotland; ‘Almas’

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DURBAN & COAST SPCA NEWS

(wild man) in Russia; ‘Genderuwa’ in Indonesia, and ‘Hibagan’ in Japan, among others. We will soon be able to view TheBigfoot Files, a British Channel 4 TV Network documentary showing the work of Professor Sykes. Sykes’s DNA testing forms part of the Oxford and Lausanne Collateral Hominid Project which is also seeking genetic evidence relating to reports of other unidentified creatures. This means, he says, that there could possibly be a subspecies of brown bear in the High Himalayas descended from the bear that was the ancestor of the polar bear. Or it could be that there was a more recent hybridisation between the brown bear and descendants of the ancient polar bear. Polar bears and brown bears are known to interbreed on occasion when their territories overlap. Sykes makes it clear that he does not at all think that an ancient species of polar bear is wandering round in the Himalayas. He still sees the yeti issues as being controversial, but points out that genetic analysis is objective science and cannot be falsified, which moves it out of the realm of ‘belief’. The legendary mountaineer, Reinhold Messner, the first man to climb Everest without oxygen, has delved into the yeti mystery ever since he had a frightening encounter in 1986. He feels that Sykes’s theory has a high likelihood of giving an answer to this millennialong mystery. Messner found a reference to a ‘chemo’ (the local name for a yeti) in a 300-year-old Tibetan manuscript. A translation reads: “The yeti is a variety of bear living in inhospitable mountainous areas.” So there was a commonsensical account of the yeti a few centuries ago, emanating from people who lived in yeti territory… but the mystery will be solved only when DNA evidence is absolutely conclusive. People love unsolved mysteries… the yeti, the Loch Ness monster, the kraken (which might well have been the giant squid, which would have been huge compared to the relatively small sailing ships of the day)… and so there is almost regret when the mystery is solved. The komodo dragon, the okapi and the mountain gorilla were all thought to be cryptids at one time, until their existence was confirmed. The most frequently reported sightings seem to come from North America, where there are several organisations devoted to exploring Bigfoot sightings, speculations, anecdotes and myths. Bigfoot, described in terms identical to the yeti, is reported from isolated snowy forested areas of the Pacific North-West. The fact is that we like our unknown monsters and our unresolved mysteries, and solving them leaves a sort of gap in our imaginative overview of exotic possibilities. Jane Goodall, questioned about Bigfoot, said in 2012 that she wouldn’t entirely discount some of the speculations, despite their unlikelihood, because she would love for Bigfoot really to exist! We will have to await DNA evidence to explain the Bigfoot mystery, but it seems likely that the solution could be much the same as seems likely regarding the yeti, and that a species of bear is at the heart of the mystery.

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New Inspectorate Appointments We extend a warm welcome to our two new inspectors, Nish Ramsamy and Codie Fermin. Both Nish and Codie are qualified inspectors from other branches of the SPCA and join a team dedicated to working in a field that is demanding and often heartrending. We are proud of the sterling work done by our Inspectorate team.

Nish Ramsamy

Codie Fermin

OBITUARY We were saddened to hear of the death of past Committee Chairman, Veterinarian Dr Gordon Clow. Dr Clow also served as Vice Chairman and Vice President during his terms of office with the Durban & Coast SPCA in the 1990s. Our sincere condolences go to his family.

DURBAN & COAST SPCA

Humane Education Project Laura Pretorius

Here is a selection from my reports on my school visits.

Northlen Primary

I began with the Grade 4s and found that some of them already knew about the SPCA anti-chaining campaign and that people were being fined for this brutal kind of ill-treatment. I found the openness of the children at this school to receive information delightful. As usual, we also worked through the fireworks issue.

Machen Mistry Primary

The children at this school come from very disadvantaged backgrounds, but I found the morale high. Many of them come from the shacks behind the school and in Kenville. Principal Mrs Sagadaven said that shacks burn down periodically, and the inmates have to start from scratch once again, having not even their books or school clothes. Yet the learners at Machen Mistry were neatly dressed and obviously proud of their school. The Grade 7s were well-mannered, friendly and keen to learn, and I found much the same with the Grade 6s. I was absolutely bowled over when the Grade 6 and 7 learners gave me a donation before I left the school. They had made a spontaneous collection without any coaching from teachers, some having given their lunch money. Instead, they ate the food provided by the feeding scheme for that day. Then the Grade 5s handed over a further donation after I had spoken to them. I was deeply touched. This might be the most disadvantaged school on my list, so these children were making a considerable sacrifice in giving up their precious money.

Comment campaign

about

the

anti-chaining

It is great to be able to leave something tangible behind at schools to remind the children about the need to care deeply about animals because this is part of learning to be compassionate towards all living things. These practical little SPCA gifts will be seen every day by the children so will have long-lasting effects. I can see how well this kind of campaign will work in the schools. We would also be able to use this approach to draw attention to issues like the need for sterilisation and the banning of big-bang fireworks by giving the children small useful items with the SPCA logo, items that they will use every day.

This school is one of my favourites to visit, and I am always sorry that I can do this only every two years. The morale at the school is very high, the teachers are well-organised, the children are well-mannered, and the premises are clean. They have a functional veggie garden and a huge aviary where they keep budgies. These birds have plenty of space, are well cared for, and sing away all the time, reminding learners that they are part of the school. I had received the SPCA promotional anti-chaining material from Carolineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s department and was able to distribute it at this school. The children just loved the stickers and rulers and promised to use them as reminders to look out for chained animals and to help animals wherever they go.

Here are some of the Grade 5 pupils at Riverview Primary School, who were delighted to receive our SPCA posters and especially loved the SPCA rulers. This is part of our anti-chaining campaign in which we are doing our best to sensitise children, and people in general, to the appalling habit of keeping dogs on chains, often for all or most of their lives. It would shock readers to know how cruel these chains often are and what painful wounds are sometimes sustained by the abused animals. Speak out about chaining!

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Kaminalee Primary

/ The Animal Angle / August 2013

DURBAN & COAST HUMANE EDUCATION PROJECT

Ups and Downs

During early October I visited two schools in very disadvantaged areas, both being subject to the issues that confront impoverished communities, yet there is simply no comparison between the two. One school was run down, filthy, and with a general atmosphere of defeat, while the other, Hopeville Primary, was flourishing and had a vibrant, healthy atmosphere. When I arrived at Hopeville, I was impressed by the well-kept gardens with many shady trees and benches where I saw children having reading lessons. Before entering the office building, I passed two attractive water features that were producing a soft, relaxing gurgling sound, and nearby was a large aviary where birds were chirping away. Inside the building, the floors were shiny and clean. The library, where I was to give my lessons, had a clean, tiled floor. There were AV facilities and air conditioners, and a charming librarian, Miss Antony, who assisted me throughout my four-day visit. The staff toilets in each school reflected so much about the prevailing attitudes. The first school, which I have not named, had shocking toilets with doors thick with layers of black mildew (which can be dangerous to health, as we know) and with a small â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;clearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; area on each door where many hands were touching in the process of opening. Water was seeping out from under each toilet. The plastic tiles were lifting, exposing the cement floor beneath. The air of defeat seemed stronger than ever. One cannot help but relate this level of not caring to wondering what kind of education is being delivered at this school. I was not too surprised to find that the level of comprehension at this school was poor, in total contrast to Hopeville, where the principal had even raised funds (from parents) to create a counselling room which will be serviced by a psychologist. He has also made this facility available to other schools in the area. Impressive.

A general comment

I sometimes visit schools where more than 90% of the children do not speak English at home. The level of comprehension is sometimes so poor that the children can hardly follow the most simplified version of the presentation. This means that the stimulation of the other 10% who are able to follow is being seriously impaired, and they simply lose out because they do not have the opportunity to advance as they would in a school where most children are able to speak English. It is sad to see children sitting with baffled expressions because they cannot understand the language of a lesson. Our presentation is probably clearer to them than most because of visual aids and the practical nature of the topic, but what is clear is that education would be greatly boosted in these particular schools were there to be a special focus on the teaching of English as communication with a lot of emphasis on activity and visual teaching aids and on activities, including classroom games, story-telling and simple drama (actions that explain activities).

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Eseltjiesrus outreach Eseltjiesrus is a donkey sanctuary near Macgregor in the Western Cape. It is dedicated to taking in neglected or abused donkeys and nurturing them back to health under the best possible conditions. But their concern extends beyond their own compassionate project. When it becomes available, we would certainly help promote their database of organisations and individuals working in the field of donkey welfare. (See below.) Here is an extract from their Newsletter. (www. donkeysanctuary.co.za) In the midst of all our farm work, we continue to deal with weekly appeals for advice and help regarding donkey well-being. We try to give appropriate advice and/or bring the problem to the attention of an agency in the relevant area. We have recently communicated with concerned people as far afield as Mafekeng, Postmasburg, Tankwa Karoo, Mogala Kwena, Amanzimtoti, Thabasimbe, and even China! Often help is close at hand, while people remain unaware of organisations that are functioning near them. In 2014, we plan to compile a database of Southern African organisations and individuals that promote donkey welfare.

FROM THE INSPECTORATE

From the Inspectorate Claire Buisman

There was great relief when the puppy was eventually located. It was 64 metres from where it had fallen down the drain. The owner, Clinton Moodley, could at last relax and was delighted to have the little creature back in his hands. The team from Camjet comprised Courtney Hillier, Justice Manyowa, Christopher Khuluse and Blessing Mbuthu.

Some recent court cases

Brutal dog killings earn suspended sentence On Friday, 23 August, Inspector Rupee received a call from witnesses to brutal dog beatings in Point Road. Two Jack Russells, Lilan and Tino, were savagely beaten with a baton in a flat by a young The camera locates the puppy in its forbidding dungeon, 64 metres white male, Werner Coetzee, and then dumped outside in a wheelie bin for from where it fell down the drain. disposal by Waste Management Services. The witnesses had heard the screams of the dogs inside A precious little life saved Inspector Alfred was involved in the rescue of a the flat and had witnessed his dumping of the dogs. When Inspector Rupee arrived at the scene, the puppy down a drain in Chatsworth on 9 September. The puppy went missing on the Thursday afternoon, witnesses had taken the two dogs out of the bin. The and Alfred spent most of Friday there, along with the police were called, and the man was arrested under the anxious owner, as efforts were made to dig down and Animal Protection Act. He was detained in Westville reach the tiny animal. The Fire Department was called Prison and applied for bail on 10 September. The SPCA on to assist, which they are always willing to do, but the opposed bail. The perpetrator was boarding in the flat with the combined rescue efforts produced no result. By Saturday, the puppy could no longer be heard, owners of the dogs. Inspector Rupee was told that he and hopes were fading, but then, on the morning of the was apparently enraged with the dogs for defecating in 9th, cries were heard again, and Alfred went to assist the flat. (One wonders whether he had bothered to let the team. Camjet was asked to assist with their high- them out at any stage to relieve themselves.) The dogs were taken to our SPCA veterinarian and powered, long-distance camera. were humanely euthanased owing to the extent of their injuries. Both were brain-damaged. Other injuries included a broken jaw, internal chest injuries and severe bruising and bleeding. The injuries were consistent with blunt instrument trauma. Coetzee was found guilty at Point Road Court on 2 October of causing unnecessary suffering to animals and was sentenced to R12,000 or six months’ imprisonment, suspended for five years on condition that he is not again convicted. He was kept in custody the entire time awaiting court appearance – five weeks – which is the longest period of pre-trial incarceration that any of our inspectors can remember for anyone accused of animal cruelty. The magistrate apparently The rescue team are relieved at the happy conclusion, felt that his incarceration for this period might have while the tiny puppy rests in the hands of its relieved owner taught him a lesson. A mere five weeks for such

/ The Animal Angle / August 2013

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FROM THE INSPECTORATE

horrendous violence towards helpless creatures! One wonders what level of crime someone has to commit before an appropriately punitive sentence is handed down. Will this be a deterrent? One hardly imagines so. And yet another! Pierre Labuschagne was found guilty of cruelty to animals on 28 October and sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment wholly suspended for three years, provided that he is not found guilty of another contravention of the APA. He had wrapped a belt around the neck of his large cross-breed German Shepherd and dragged it along the road until it strangled to death. He claimed he was “taking the dog to the vet”. Is it not time that we had ongoing name-and-shame reports in prominent positions in our newspapers revealing the names and case details of all those found guilty of acts of brutality against humans and animals? Permanent chaining A Phoenix owner, Padivathgan Chetty, was found guilty of contravening the Animal Protection Act 71 of 1962 and sentenced to a R6,000 fine or six months’ imprisonment suspended for five years. The man paid the fine. He had chained his dogs permanently and had been given earlier warnings by our inspectors. When he failed to take any notice of these warnings, charges of cruelty were laid against him. The public often ask why we give written warnings to owners who are clearly contravening the APA. We do so because this is a legal requirement, and our inspectors have to work within the legal constraints of the Act. We cannot gain access to private property and seize an animal unless the animal’s condition is absolutely critical, and even then we have to secure a warrant from a magistrate. Another act of vicious cruelty This case concerned the brutal killing of a kitten. Inspector Lisa Roberts appeared in court in August for a hearing involving a Phoenix man, Rafiek Mohammed, who had, in August 2012, cold-bloodedly swung a kitten of about seven weeks old by its legs and bashed its head against a tree until it died of appalling head and neck injuries. The perpetrator was found guilty and sentenced to a R5,000 fine or five months’ imprisonment. He paid the fine. We need to remember that there are people in our society, people who outwardly seem like the rest of us, but whose capacity for cruelty we do not suspect. It behoves us never to turn and look the other way when we witness or suspect or hear about acts of cruelty against human being or animal, or to say we get “too upset” to read or think about it. Silence is complicity. Ed.

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Eating raw fish: the high risk of contracting parasites

Shirley Bell

Popular magazine articles are forever warning us against what we should not be eating or telling us what we should eat, but when the warning comes from a well-known marine scientist, we would do well to take some notice of it. The facts in this article come from a piece written several years ago by scientist, Ofer Gon, in Ichthos, the excellent magazine of the former JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology at Rhodes University, now the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. Eating raw fish has become increasingly popular in the West over the last few decades, including in our own country over the last few years. Gon points out that this has been followed by a significant increase in reported infestations of humans by marine parasites passed on to them via raw seafood. He tells of a conversation he had with Professor I Kanfer, then of the Department of Pharmacy at Rhodes, in which the professor talked to him of “the nastiest marine parasite of them all”. It is a worm of the genus Anisakis (commonly called roundworm). The condition it causes is called Anisakiasis. It is common in Japan and on the rise in North America, comprising about 70% of reported parasite cases. The life cycle of this roundworm passes through fish or certain marine invertebrates to be completed in marine mammals who feed on them. Of the commonly consumed fish species in North America, over 80% of Pacific salmon and red snapper, and most Atlantic cod and plaice, are infested. This roundworm has a tooth that is like a bore and with this it can seriously damage the intestinal wall. Owing to the absence of eggs in the faeces of the host, the roundworm is difficult to diagnose. Consequently, it is not unusual for roundworm infestation to be misdiagnosed as appendicitis, Crohn’s disease, gastric ulcer or even cancer. What makes the roundworm even more dangerous is its ability to survive light cooking, salting or pickling processes, and refrigeration. It has, Dr Gon says, even been known to survive six days in 10% formalin. In order to kill roundworms in seafood, one needs to cook the seafood for at least 13 minutes at the high temperature of 230°C for every inch of thickness of the fish, or else to freeze it at -21°C for at least three days. Bad news for lovers of sashimi or lomi-lomi… or perhaps not, since most of us tend to overlook the possible downside of any food that is a special favourite.

FEATURE

My lifelong love of animals

Pam McNamara

Love of animals is in the genes. Well, that’s my belief. My parents married in Australia during the Second World War (neither of them being from Australia), and the first thing they did was to get a mongrel pup called Mischief. Then they were posted to India. Poor Grandma inherited Mischief briefly. Then came the telegram asking her to put Mischief on a train in Sydney and have him sent on to Perth, the port from which they would be sailing. The captain had kindly agreed to take the dog on board the troop ship to India, provided he didn’t bark! At the end of the war, they were demobbed and returned to Britain with Mischief, now a mature dog with much travel experience. The first thing I did when I was married was to get a couple of dogs. That was my first visit to the Durban SPCA, and we chose Byron (or he chose us) because Pam McNamara with her precious three-legged dog, he looked old, and we wanted to make his last days happy. We certainly had Gem, adopted from our SPCA found ourselves a bargain, as Byron was actually quite young and lived with us for another fourteen years. Some years later, there was an article in the newspaper about all the unclaimed dogs looking for homes after the fireworks season. I arrived at reception asking to see only their desperate cases. And that was how I got Lucy and also how I came to begin volunteer work at the end of 1993. What energy I must have had then! On my half-day, I would ride a horse, race to the SPCA to walk dogs, and then do a four-hour shift at the library. In those far-off days one could encounter anything from a cow to a peacock at the SPCA, including goats and pigs, as well as the usual dogs and cats. In fact, I did find a home for one of the goats, and Richard, one of the kennel hands, and I transported him in the back of my car (a Passat station wagon) to his new home at Cedara. Billy was so well-behaved that we could happily have driven him to Johannesburg. He had many happy years at Cedara and would often jump through the office window to say hello to my friend who worked there. Over the years I have adopted many dogs, usually the ones no one else was likely to want, like Sheba, an old German Shepherd with raggety ears, or three-legged Josker, who, with the help of medication, made it to the age of eleven or so. This was particularly notable, as it was a front leg that was missing. Another three-legged dog was Titch, but hers was a back leg, so her gait was not nearly as laboured (dogs, like horses, carry two-thirds of their weight on their front legs). As these dogs grow older, I use a pram for our walks round the park. While the other dogs frisked and frolicked, Josker would doze off in his pram. In August this year, I took on another three-legged dog from the Durban SPCA. She is called Gem, and the pram is waiting in the garage for her when she needs it. I usually visit the SPCA once a week and take polony for the cats and dogs and then walk the dogs. I must admit to feeling my age now and generally come home and recover with a couple of hours’ sleep! What beautiful grounds we have now at the Durban & Coast SPCA in Springfield with all the indigenous trees and plants, and how much safer one feels. Many people ask how I can handle the tragedy of knowing that so many of the animals will be euthanased for want of a good home. I look on it as at least making their last days happy. As someone who sees what they achieve, I take my hat off to the staff who work at the SPCA and do their utmost for the animals.

A different kind of Lawnmover

A Tokyo newspaper reports that a Japanese condominium complex has decided to give up using noisy lawnmowers and use a much quieter mode of keeping their lawns trim. They have rented four goats to keep their lawns looking good. The cost is minimal, no instruction is needed, there are no machines to be serviced, and the goats know exactly what to do. They are also good at trimming the grass on steep slopes, and their “poop pellets” are pure grass, so quite inoffensive and easily removed. It’s cost-effective and environmentally friendly. If the two-month trial period goes smoothly, the goats might be hired out to other complexes.

Adapted from Sapa-AFP

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

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FEATURE

Mongoose man worried about safety of his animals Neil Friedman, affectionately known as Durban’s Mongoose Man, is increasingly worried that illegal fires will take the lives of his beloved little wild creatures that live in bushy areas on Durban’s beach front. He has been looking after the mongoose population along the old Snake Park beach area for more than a decade. This is the last area of original dune vegetation that once covered a large part of our beachfront. About thirteen years ago, he found that mongooses and the cats had moved to the dune bushes from Mini Town. They were soon waiting eagerly for him to arrive with their food. Sparky, a young ginger cat was the first to arrive on this day, followed by a mongoose who peeped cautiously out of the bushes (see photographs). Neil originally took care of 13 mongooses, which then gave birth to two or three babies every September, but by last year poachers had left him with only four adults. For a while there were no new babies. Then three babies were born in August last year, and this year two more have been added to the group. He is now really anxious that careless people might be responsible for harming his mongooses, cats and birds because fires are being made right on the boundary fence of the bush on the sea side. The fires spread right over to the dune where he feeds the animals and where he has two bird feeders and bird baths which bring hundreds of birds to the area, many of which have made their homes there. He fears the entire busy area is in danger of being burnt down. The cats presently wait for him in an area that was burnt down earlier. The Municipality has removed the gate on the road side of the bush, and (as the Berea News reported earlier), Neil now has to climb over the fence in order to feed the animals and fill the pond with water. He fears impaling himself on the fence and hopes that the Municipality will replace

Mongoose Man, Neil Friedman seen with one of his cat’s, Sparky, shows the fire damage to the animals’ habitat.

the gate soon. He has not missed a day of feeding the animals since he first began and hasn’t been on holiday for over thirteen years. “My conscience won’t let me stay away,’ he says. “Rain or shine, my animals need me.” One hears a great deal of grumbling and negative comment these days about the country, the crime, the corruption, and the rising costs, as well as about a lot of less important things. It’s easy to forget that there are remarkable people who are performing extraordinary selfless services in all walks of life. During World War II, there used to be a minute of silence throughout the country at mid-day. All traffic and all people stopped for those sixty seconds to give thanks to the brave human beings who were risking their lives for their country. We need a minute of silence now to honour the many admirable and courageous people who commit themselves in the long term to acts of caring for animals and human beings in desperate need. And one hopes that the Municipality will perform its own act of caring and help protect the mongooses, cats and birds from both illicit fires and ruthless poachers. This should be a protected area, unavailable to vagrants.

The mongooses are seen coming out of the bushes as Neil Friedman Acknowledgements for photographs to the Berea Mail. leaves their food.

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Stories from around the World We have adapted interesting, unusual, and sometimes humorous and delightful, snippets from various sources to share with our readers.

Rare White-winged Flufftail found at King Shaka Airport

The White-winged Flufftail is so rare that bird experts believe there might be no more than 250 of the species left in the world. In South Africa, the first sighting took place in Potchefstroom 136 years ago, and since then the bird has been spotted at no more than another fifteen sites. The only other country where this small water bird with big feet has been seen with any regularity is Ethiopia. It is not known whether the two populations - 4,000km apart - are linked through migration. It is possible that solving that issue might lie with a small number of feather and white-winged Flufftail droppings in museum collections from around South Africa and from Dr Craig Symes’s office at Wits University. Dr Symes is an ornithologist and he wants to use isotope analysis to ascertain whether the birds have travelled between the two countries. Isotope analysis involves tracing the changes in the ratios of isotopes for different elements: “From taking samples from feathers we might be able to look at where they came from and rule out where they haven’t come from,” Dr Symes explains. His feather samples come from seven Flufftails that were caught and released near Addis Ababa, in Ethiopia. He was a member of an expedition organised by BirdLife SA, the Middelpunt Wetland Trust and Ethiopian conservation authorities who travelled to the East African country. He wants to compare the Ethiopian feathers with those of South African Whitewinged Flufftail samples. If the isotope signatures of the samples from the different countries prove to be similar, it could suggest that the Flufftails move between South Africa and Ethiopia. A few weeks ago, there was a missed opportunity to add to Dr Symes’s feather collection. A worker at King Shaka International Airport in Durban found a Whitewinged Flufftail near one of the runways. Unfortunately, by the time the bird was identified, it had been released.

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

It was the first time in more than 100 years that a Whitewinged Flufftail had been spotted in Durban. BirdLife said this individual might well be one of the last of its species in South Africa. In an endeavour to understand more about the species, Symes collected White-wing Flufftail faeces in Ethiopia. Through DNA barcoding, he hopes to work out what the birds eat. With more information, conservationists believe the Flufftail species can be saved. “First we need to understand more about this bird. It is only with a better understanding of its movements and habits that we can implement effective conservation measures,” said Dr Hanneline Smit-Robinson of BirdLife Africa. Adapted from an article by Shaun Smillie in The Star.

This extremely rare White-winged Flufftail was rediscovered at King Shaka Airport. It was the first confirmed sighting in more than a century. Photograph is by Marius van Rooyen

There’s a crocodile under my bed!

On a night in September last, Guy Whittall, one of the directors of Humani Lodge, a game lodge in Zimbabwe, spent a restful night in his bedroom without knowing that a 2,5-metre crocodile was peacefully resting under his bed.

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STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Henriques in the St Thomas area after her mate was fatally shot in the head. The Jamaican conservationist finds it unconscionable that so many people totally disregard the laws protecting crocodiles. He reports that some poachers are using baited shark hooks to catch crocodiles and that eggs are often dug up right after nesting females deposit them on beaches. It is opportune to pay tribute to our rural peoples of northern Zululand who, despite often being protein-hungry, do not kill the great marine turtles that come ashore to It sounds like the stuff of nightmares - but Guy Whittall will certainly be lay their eggs nor do they dig up checking for 'monsters' underneath his bed, after waking up to find an eight- the eggs for food. Marine turtles foot crocodile hiding just inches from where he slept. Acknowledgement and are subjected to slaughter in many other parts of the world, and nests thanks to Caters News Agency. are ruthlessly raided. The marine turtle conservation When he arose in the morning, he sat for a while on programme in KwaZulu-Natal has a proudly successful the edge of his bed, planning his day. Nothing alerted record. him to the fact that he was sharing his bedroom with Wealthy private buyers in Jamaica are paying up one of the most feared of reptiles. to $70 a kg for crocodile meat, and secret crocodileThen he went off to the kitchen, to be spurred into eating parties are popular with men who believe that it action a little later by the panic-stricken screams of a enhances their sexual virility. So it seems that crocodile housemaid, who had had an encounter of the third meat is now joining rhino horn in absurd superstitions kind when she had come face to face with the intruder, that boost fragile egos! presumably when she went to make up the bed. Compared to its larger and more aggressive cousins Mr Whittall summoned help. The crocodile was in Africa and Australia, the “American crocodile” roped, taken away, and returned to where it belonged. species found in Jamaica is reclusive, although mature Mr Whittall commented that he was pretty certain that adults are nonetheless large animals that can become everyone would henceforth check under their beds! aggressive during the breeding season. Only three Jamaicans are known to have been killed by crocodiles since the 1980s, so they are much less of a menace to Jamaican crocodiles under threat humans than our crocodiles. An article by David McFadden, Associated Press, in Henriques would like to see the Jamiacan government October pointed to the growing decimation of the setting aside areas as crocodile reserves. crocodile population in southern Jamaica where they Adapted from a news item by David Mc Fadden. Sapa. were once abundant. The population is seriously dwindling because of the growing demand for crocodile meat and eggs, despite the fact that crocodiles have been protected in Jamaica since 1971. Jamaican conservationists now fear they will soon be wiped out in the wild. Crocodiles were once almost eliminated in the only American habitat in Florida, but the population has rebounded owing to conservation measures. However, rising demand for crocodile meat in Jamaica is resulting in extensive poaching. In response to this, a passionate reptile enthusiast, Lawrence Henriques, has set up a crocodile sanctuary and captive rearing programme near the small northern mountain town of Cascade, which is a considerable distance from the crocodiles’ normal southern habitat. He hopes to educate islanders in his Lawrence Henriques with rescued crocodiles at area to see crocodiles as a species worth preserving. His pens and ponds hold 45 crocs, including a large the sanctuary he founded in the small mountain one nicknamed “Stumpy” because of a severed tail. town of Cascade in northern Jamaica. (Photograph: A 2.4m-long female called Doris was rescued by Acknowledgements to Associated Press)

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STORIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD

Giant fish of the deep… do their deaths warn of portending earthquakes?

or cause them to leave the deep ocean which is their habitat and rise towards the surface. It could, it seems, also be that prior to an earthquake there might be a release of large amounts of carbon monoxide. All of these possibilities will be studied. With fears of another “Big One” hitting California sooner or later, the issue is back in public awareness, and residents are hoping that no links will be found between earthquakes and dead oarfish washing up from the depths of the ocean. Adapted from Sapa-AP, The Independent, and other reports.

Photograph: Associated Press, courtesy of the Catalina Island Marine Institute, California.

This is the 5,5m oarfish found by Jasmine Santana, a marine science instructor from the Catalina Island Marine Institute, when she was snorkelling off the coast of Southern California. It was nine metres below the surface. She managed to drag this huge creature for 20 metres before fifteen helpers waded in to help pull it ashore. Oarfish, which are deep-water pelagic fish, can actually grow to more than 15 metres in length, but Mark Waddington, senior captain of the Tole Mour, the CIMI’s training ship; said this was the biggest oarfish they had ever seen. Because oarfish dive more than 900m deep, sightings of the creatures are rare, making it difficult to study them. This oarfish appeared to have died of natural causes. Tissue samples and video footage were sent to the University of California, Santa Barbara. The carcass was put on display for students and was then buried in sand, where it will remain until it decomposes. Its skeleton will be reconstituted for display. The oarfish is the largest bony fish in the oceans and might well be responsible for sea serpent legends. A legend among Japanese fishermen, who call the oarfish “messenger from the sea gods”, is that these huge serpent-like fish rise to the surface when earthquakes are pending. In the year before the devastating 2011 Tohoku earthquake, several dead oarfish washed up along the Japanese coastline. While there is no actual evidence of links between earthquakes and the appearance of dead oarfish, the possibility is not being discounted. Rachel Grant, lecturer in animal biology at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, USA, has built up a database of several hundred sightings of oarfish over two and a half years and is studying these in relation to US Geological Survey reports of earthquakes that occurred within a 500-mile radius of sightings to see whether any kind of pattern can be discerned. There have been suggestions that the oarfish could have died as a result of some deep underwater disturbance, or that there has been a build-up of pressure in the rocks which could have led to electrostatic changes which could cause electrically-charged ions to be released into the water. The charged ions oxidise organic matter which could possibly kill the oarfish

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

Escaped farmed salmon pose threat to wild salmon

Marine Harvest, the famous Norwegian fish farming giant that is the world’s largest produced of farmed salmon, has offered a sixty euros ($80) reward for any salmon recaptured after a violent storm allowed thousands of salmon to escape from a huge submerged cage in which 127,000 salmon were kept. Nets were used in the surrounding areas in an attempt to catch the escapees, which weighed about two kgs each. This is more than a matter of lost income, because the farmed salmon will weaken the genetic structure of the offspring of wild salmon if they breed with them. This is not a new problem. According to the Norwegian Fisheries Directorate, figures from 2012 show that 38,000 farmed salmon escaped that year, which was ten times fewer than in 2011, compared with 921,000 in 2006! It would seem, then, that there has already been considerable impact on the genetic structure of wild salmon.

“The purity of a person’s heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals” ~ Anonymous

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How a weeny vervet came into my life

Sabrina Miles

We asked Sabrina to tell us about the tiny newborn monkey shown in the pictures here. I found the baby monkey when going for a run on the farm (Milestone Farm, Wartburg). Unfortunately, the dogs had run after his mom. I think she was injured, because she was unusually slow-moving. Normally monkeys keep well ahead of the dogs. While she was running away, she dropped her baby. He was just a couple of days old. I could not take the chance of leaving him, as I did not know whether she would, or could, come back for him. I fed him on baby cats’ milk with a baby bottle. He wore a nappy with a little hole cut for his tail. At first we simply called him ‘Monkey’, then George (for George of the Jungle), but after arguments within the Miles family he became Milo for a week, and eventually was dubbed Hercules from surviving all the “tough times”… although most people just called him “crazy munkaaay” in a funny accent. He slept at the end of my bed in a basket and woke up every few hours wanting milk. Just like a real baby. He thought I was his mother and clung to me at all times, even when I went horse riding. He would, however, go to my brother and sister. Apparently, when monkeys are in their troop, they are looked after by the first mom (their mother) and their ‘second’ moms, who are her siblings. Ironically, he also used to cuddle up every now and then with the dogs. He swam in the pool with me which

was good, as it kept him clean. He also started eating from a spoon (baby puree) at about three weeks and chewing on raisins (and his fingers). He had all the normal human baby stuff and acted like a human baby, just a little less loud. He made a light chattering noise when he wanted something. I did know that it would be unfair to keep him in captivity, especially as I will be back at varsity soon and can’t take him with me to lectures, so I sadly had to part with him. I gave him to people whom I knew would really care for him and have the necessary expertise. He will be rehabilitated and released back into the wild. They have renamed him Eddie, and he has a little friend the same age as himself called Pippin. He plays with her all the time. She is a little stronger then he, having had proper monkey milk from the beginning, but my little one is catching up. I keep a close watch on his progress, and Milestone Kitchens (my mother’s business) will be making donations to help in the good work being done to rescue and rehabilitate vervets. It was quite devastating to have to give him away as I have grown very attached to my little Hercules, but I know it was for the best as far as he was concerned. My little Eddie/Hercules/George/Milo/Crazy Monkey is quite the character, I can tell you. He is cuter than all the other monkeys. I checked!

Sabrina says: “Here is my little darling. So tiny and helpless”

“My little Hercules is so much like a human baby. Here he is in his nappy.”

“How hard it was to give this dear creature up, but I had to do what was right for him, and that was to turn to Monkey Helpline, so that one day he will be back in the wild with his own kind.”

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Lynne feeds four feral cat colonies Twelve years ago, Lynne Goodman was handed a little black kitten by a fellow jogger when she was doing her regular run along our beachfront. Having no transport herself, the jogger asked Lynne to take the small creature to the SPCA. Instead, Lynne took him home to her beachfront flat. And so began her crusade to look after abandoned and feral cats in her vicinity. Today, hundreds of these cats benefit from her compassion and her commitment to their welfare. This includes a sterilisation programme, which means that Lynne has had to become adept at trapping. She has two cat traps and says that if one doesn’t succeed in trapping a cat at the first attempt, one is not likely to trap that cat on a future occasion. These cats survive because they are smart and wary. She has become adept at identifying which cats need to be sterilised in this ongoing personal project. Since sterilisation is expensive, funding is essential. Another of her related activities is to persuade factory owners and the landlords of buildings to permit feral cats to remain in their vicinities and not try to get rid of them, because they perform a hugely useful task in keeping the rat population down. For Lynne, one of the heartwarming aspects of what Andrew Harvey of Wisdom University would call her “sacred social service” (giving service from the heart to something that calls to one’s deepest being) is discovering There are people who find a cause that needy people who live deprived lives and have few possessions that is dear to their hearts and who nonetheless often help to feed strays. are willing to keep giving of their Every morning she cooks a large pot of rice and mixes it with cat food time and their love. Lynne Goodman before leaving for her feeding areas where the cats respond to her calls. is such a person. This is time-consuming as well as costly. Photograph: The Berea Mail She also runs a stall at the Essenwood morning market where she sells dog jerseys, books on animals, and pet chews, and where she collects donations for food and sterilisations. Many people need pets It is being increasingly recognised that loss of their pets has negative health effects on people who are obliged to move into residences for the aged, complexes, and apartments run by body corporates that ban small animals. This is another area of Lynne’s concern. She would like to see such harsh regulations changed so that pet lovers are not deprived willy-nilly of their animals. There is no greater likelihood that animals will misbehave in a complex than they would in a private home. Rules of behaviour surely apply in both. The problem appears not to be with the law as, judging from information on relevant internet sites, decisions regarding animals are left to the bodies running complexes and buildings, and these often go beyond the limits of ‘reasonableness’ in their determination to ban all pets, including those that would never be seen or heard by other residents. As far as residences for the aged are concerned, a step in the right direction would be for such places to have a couple of cats and dogs belonging to the organisation itself. This would bring a great deal of pleasure to many people who are deeply missing their pets. There are certain breeds of dog that live very comfortably indoors most of the time. Dog lovers know that, even when there is a spacious garden available, most dogs will happily choose to lie at their owner’s feet, given the option. In many cities, such as New York, inner city pets are taken for granted, even in high rise buildings, and one constantly sees pet owners out walking their dogs, even in the central city. Dog walkers are also available, usually students or older people who are still fit, and one often sees them with as many as four or five dogs on leashes, all enjoying themselves. There are strict rules requiring owners to carry plastic bags in order to remove any dog faeces during such walks. There are certain breeds of dog that live very comfortably indoors. Draconian rules preventing people from having pets are not a good idea. One accepts the need for rules, but not the need for pet lovers to get rid of their animals at a time in their lives when they need them most.

/ The Animal Angle / August 2013

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SA Guide Dog Association Dogs who perform services of love and change lives

Jill Seldon

Di Turner, the speaker at a recent University of the Third Age (U3A) meeting, gave an insightful address on the work of the Guide Dog Association operates. The Association was started in 1953 in a small cottage. There are now many buildings on ten acres of beautiful wooded grounds in Bryanston, and a staff of forty. A breeding dog will stay with a volunteer family, but will return to the centre to give birth. The kennels are well- equipped and also have underfloor heating. From the age of eight weeks until about eight months, the puppies are cared for by volunteer families. During this time they are brought to the centre for puppy training. Those found to be suitable then start full-time training to be guide, service or social dogs. When a guide dog has completed his training at the centre, he and his trainer spend three weeks in the home of the new owner where the dog becomes accustomed to the surroundings and learns commands that will assist his owner, for example: “Take me to the ATM” or to a particular shop. Service dogs are also trained to help people with other disabilities. They are taught to fetch and carry goods for someone in a wheel chair, and we were shown slides of dogs opening doors and even loading laundry into a washing machine!

Social dogs also care for children with Down’s syndrome or other problems. The child who cares for the dog finds that he has a friend who is totally unjudgemental of his physical or mental condition. We learnt that the Guide Dog Association also runs a college to train teachers who go to the rural areas to assist and teach blind people how to cope with their disability. They are shown how to use a cane to help them move about and how to organise their homes so that they can manage more easily. One old lady was found to be spending all day in a hut while her family were out at work. Her major problem was not being able to go to the outside toilet on her own. Two poles were put up, one outside the door of the hut, and the other alongside the toilet. A wire was strung between the poles, and the old lady was then able to get to the toilet on her own, creating a whole new aspect of independence for her and removing a stress factor from her life. A guide dog owner from Illovo and her dog were at the meeting, and she shared her experiences with us. It costs R65,000 to train one dog, and the organisation raises all its own funds. One fund-raising activity is to collect aluminium can tops. This is an area where members of the public can easily assist. With acknowledgements to the U3A Newsletter No. 66

RED ALERT… stolen dogs! Bull Terriers, Pit Bulls and Staffies, as well as other breeds, are being stolen out of gardens all over our country and are being torn apart in appallingly cruel dog-fighting, both here and across our borders. Please protect your precious dogs by: 1. Making sure your male dogs are neutered (fighting rings prefer un-neutered dogs) and that female dogs are spayed. 2. Have your dogs micro-chipped. 3. Make sure that they are in a safe area or preferably inside your home when you are out for the day or a lengthy period during the day or evening.

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4. Don’t introduce your dogs to people on your property to deliver services. Preferably keep your dogs out of sight when strangers are about. 5. Warn your domestic staff and children about the dangers of dog thieves. 6. Make sure that your dog cannot escape from your property. 7. If you are going away, make sure that a responsible person stays in your home and that your pets are inside the house with them, or else put them in a kennel facility of known reliable reputation. 8. If you get any enquiries about your dog from people passing while you walk in the street, don’t give your dog’s name, age, breed or any details. Let’s protect our dogs from the ruthless people who are engaged in this brutal dog-fighting. (With acknowledgements to The Seeing Eye, the Umbilo/ Glenmore Neighbourhood Newsletter edited by Janet Nicolson. October edition.)

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Do you know what you are eating? Factory farming can be defined as the mass production of livestock to provide food at lower prices for the consumer….but what is the REAL price of factory farming, and what terrible price are our animals are paying? The atrocities linked to factory farming are usually farthest from the consumer’s mind when ordering a meal at a takeaway or restaurant, or casually picking up meat, eggs, or dairy products at the supermarket. Billions of animals are farmed and killed for meat and dairy each year. Most of them are raised in intensive factory farms, in cramped, overcrowded cages, sheds and pens. Factory farms are large warehouses where animals are confined in crowded cages or pens and treated like a commodity. With no room to stretch limbs or wings and no access to daylight or fresh air, intensively reared animals are often diseased, injured and dying owing to the unnatural conditions in which they are kept. Denial of freedom of movement and deprivation of natural behaviour are just the tip of the iceberg for these animals, as intensive farming results in horrifically cruel practices throughout the world. Farmed animals are subjected to mutilations such as having their beaks clipped, their teeth pulled out, and their tails docked to stop them from pecking and wounding each other through boredom and frustration. There is a growing global consciousness of the truth behind what we are consuming, and growing compassion for factory-farmed animals. As consumers we can demand compassionate farming practices and we have the power to buy only from those producers who treat their animals humanely… while they are on the farm, while they are transported, and when they are slaughtered. “To visit a modern CAFO (Confined Animal Feeding Operation) is to enter a world that, for all its technological sophistication, is still designed to Cartesian principles: (the belief that) animals are machines incapable of feeling pain. Since no thinking person can possibly believe this anymore, industrial animal agriculture depends on a suspension of disbelief on the part of the people who operate it and a willingness to avert your eyes on the part of everyone else.” Michael Pollan, “An Animal’s Place”, The New York Times Magazine. Let us not avert our eyes…let us become more conscious about the production and traceability of the foods we eat. Question the origins and ethics of the food you consume. As a consumer, ask your local supermarket to stock free-range alternatives. Ask

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

whether they have an authentication programme. Are their suppliers regularly audited? As a consumer, ask your restaurateur if the menu is free-range. Encourage responsible outlets and restaurants to promote that they are proudly free-range. Support Meat-free Mondays, an initiative to reduce meat consumption as a compassionate step to help prevent the cruelty and suffering of these animals. Compassion in World Farming has revealed that by introducing a meat-free day in South Africa, 11 200 cattle, 2 million chickens, 10 000 pigs and 22 300 sheep will not face slaughter each week. (http://www. supportmfm.co.za)

Oldest-living creature discovered … but killed for science

When a deep-sea quohog clam (given the name of Ming the Mollusc!) was dredged up from the North Atlantic off the coast of Iceland in 2006, scientists at Bangor University in the UK estimated its age at 405 years, making it the oldest living thing ever found. It wasn’t living for long, however. Unaware of its extreme age, the scientists placed it in a deepfreeze along with 200 other clams dredged up at the same time. When annual rings were counted, it was named Ming after the Ming dynasty which ruled China from 1368 to 1644. But further painstaking investigation showed that some of the annual rings were virtually on top of one another, and taking account of this revealed that the quahog clam was actually 507 years old. A quahog’s shell grows a layer every summer, the period when the water is warmer and food plentiful. This new finding means that Ming was born about seven years after Columbus discovered America, rather than at the time Shakespeare was writing his later plays. The scientists are relating the annual rings of clams to climate change. They are looking at annual shell growth, which provides information relating to water temperature, salinity of the water, and availability of food, says Bangor scientist, Paul Butler. The annual records provided by the shells allow scientists to estimate the extent of marine climate change. They are particularly interested in looking at rings laid down during the last halfcentury compared with rings laid down a thousand years ago to see whether anything extraordinary emerges from the more recent data.

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uShaka Sea World’s remarkable role in saving marine animals A young male sub-Antarctic fur seal was rescued by KZN Wildlife staff on a Port Edward beach in September and was taken to uShaka for medical treatment, rehabilitation and eventual return to the ocean. He arrived at uShaka Sea World in September. He was a long way from his home off Marion Island, which is 1,920 kms southeast of Cape Town. He was underweight and had injuries to a flipper and to his lower back, possibly inflicted by a shark from which he had managed to escape. At uShaka he was given intravenous fluids, and his wounds were treated with antibiotics. He was so dehydrated and weak that for three days it was thought that he might not survive. But then he began to eat with remarkable appetite and soon gained about five kgs. He was given the name of Minion because he was so tiny compared with his roommate, Selso, and the other Cape Fur Seals at uShaka. He is being fed pilchards, hake and cuttlefish, as well as gelatine to boost fluid intake. Blood tests so far have been very promising. When Minion and Selso have gained sufficient weight, it is planned to release them together on the Continental shelf off Port Elizabeth. This is their natural feeding ground. Although Selso is much bigger than Minion, he, too, has to gain more weight. At 163 kgs at the time of writing, he needs to weigh 180 kgs before he will be considered ready for release. Minion will take longer to reach a suitable weight for release, so Selso will wait until they are both deemed to have the best possible chance of surviving back in their own environment. Adapted from an article in the Berea Mail. We also acknowledge their photograph.

SOS! (Save our spiders!) Denise Sergeant sent this picture to us a while back as she wondered whether this quite fearsome-looking spider was dangerous. Here is what she wrote: My daughter, Mandy, sent us this photograph of a spider that was on the wall of her bedroom. She sprayed it with Doom, standing up on her bed to do so! However, the window was open, and it fortunately went outside. Then she saw the spider (or one like it) on a wall in the front garden, and here it is. She thinks it is called a rain spider. Are they as much to be feared as they look? Rain spiders are among our largest spiders. Some people think they are baboon spiders (African tarantulas), but rain spiders are not related to baboon spiders at all. They are perfectly harmless to human beings and animals. Rain spiders are found throughout the world. Their scientific name is Sparassidae. Seventeen species are found in Southern Africa and twelve in South Africa. They like to be in and around our homes and in our gardens, but we have no need to fear them. They range in size from 15mm to about 40mm (body

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length, excluding leg span). If one takes account of their long legs, they can measure up to 100mm, so no wonder some people are alarmed at finding them in their homes. They do not build webs and are largely nocturnal. They prefer to live in the garden, but lights attract them at night and they come inside to hunt insects. You will sometimes see their nests in the garden. The sac is covered with leaves and held together with spider silk. The mother spider guards it assiduously. It takes about three weeks for the babies to arrive and they stay close to the mother spider for her protection for a while before they go off on their own. Don’t just run for the poisonous spray or the swatter when you see a spider. They are among our most useful little creatures. (South Africa’s famous soil conservationist, Dr TC Robertson, would not let his domestic worker clean away spider webs in his home in Scottburgh, as he said it was most unfair to destroy their environments. Not all his friends approved of this and thought it was going a shade too far!) If you would like to know more about spiders, why not join the Spider Club of Southern Africa: e-mail info@spiderclub.co.za or buy Spiders of Southern Africa by Astri and John Leroy, published by Struik.

FEATURE

The dog, dubbed 'Underdog' on Twitter, swam around for several days in an attempt to find a way out. Pictures: Emile Hendricks/Foto24

Dog trapped in Kimberley’s Big Hole A great many South Africans waited anxiously to hear whether the immensely involved rescue operation launched to reach a young dog that had fallen down into the water at the bottom of Kimberley’s Big Hole would be successful. The dog had fallen 179 metres and was first noticed by tourists on Thursday morning, 21 November, although it was eventually estimated that he had been trapped in the water for up to six days by Saturday, 23 November. A spokesman from De Beers, which owns the Big Hole, said that the dog had somehow got through the perimeter fencing, perhaps through a gap. It is astonishing that it survived such a steep fall. The rescue mission was a combined effort involving the police provincial Search and Rescue Unit; the national private emergency medical service, ER24; the Sol Plaatje Emergency Services fire brigade, the SPCA, and De Beers officials, but initial attempts proved futile and had to be abandoned in the early evening of that day. Rescuers had found the ground too unstable to allow for the use of anchors. Ropes 400 metres in length were used in several abseiling attempts, during which parts of the cliff face had broken up. When a helicopter recue came under consideration, the singer Kurt Darren tweeted that he would pay for the costs of the helicopter attempt. But it was felt that wind could endanger the lives of the pilot and crew as it could interfere with the stability of the machine at such a low flying level. Dirk Coetzee, manager of the famous Big Hole open pit diamond mine, said that it was fortunate that the dog had found a little ledge while swimming around trying to find a way out of the water. SPCA inspector, Mario van der Westhuizen, said it was evident that the dog had been swimming around for a long time. Then, on 23 November, the dog was finally rescued in a skilful five-hour combined effort. Rigs had been erected to help stabilise the operation. The rescue team of seven gallant members comprised paramedics and police Search and Rescue officers who rappelled down the dangerous vertical side of the Big Hole, the depth of the descent being equivalent to the height of a fifty-storey building. The rescuer to reach the dog in the final stage of the hugely dangerous operation was Warrant Officer John Seeley of the K9 Unit. The rescue

/ The Animal Angle / December 2013

was made even more difficult owing to the dog being traumatised and frightened and moving out of reach when the officer tried to take hold of it. Despite the extent of its fall and the consequent dangers, lengthy exposure and lack of food, the young animal was found to be in reasonably fit condition. How good it is to have a happy ending. And the ending is to become even happier, because the dog has many people wanting to adopt him, including among the rescue team members. (Information gleaned from various media sources, including ER24, the Weekend Argus, City Press, News24, and IOL. )

Update minutes before we go to press! Pastor Chris Baadjies has claimed the rescued dog (now named Kimberley by rescuer Warrant Officer John Seeley of the K9 Unit, who wants to adopt her). Pastor Baadjies says her name is Gigi, that she is four years old, and is a cross Boerbull/Pitbull terrier. Adoption offers have poured in, including from overseas. Facebook pages have been going crazy. There is a Facebook page dedicated to the dog - Kaptein”Seeley Rescue a Dog/ Cat Page https://www.facebook.com/pages/KapteinSeeleyRescue-a-DogCat-Page/554601837967575?fref=ts.

Warrant Officer John Seeley of the K9 Police Unit carries the young dog after the five-hour rescue operation by the gallant team of seven.

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PUPSKY’S PAGE Hello kids Lots of people said they liked my page in our last issue, so I thought I would tell you a little more about myself. As you know, I live with Laura and Fransie. Laura teaches in the SPCA Humane Education Project, and that was how I came to be saved from a sad and scary life, because she saw me when I was a little lonely lost soul and very frail, and she just picked me up and took me home. There were lots of other dogs living there, but I soon saw that I am the cleverest. When Laura goes out she always takes her handbag with her. Sometimes she has lunch out and then she keeps the sweets that they bring with her coffee. She keeps these for Zanele, who is the lady who looks after our house (and sometimes also us dogs). Well, I should have said she keeps them for Zanele if Zanele gets there first, because one day I happened to be sniffing round Laura’s handbag when I came across some little white things called mints. I got the paper off one and gave it a chew, and it was really rather nice. Ever since then, when I hear Laura open the zipper of her handbag, I rush along close to the speed of light to make sure that she does not give the little white sweets to

I’m thinking about it… It’s very tempting. Is Laura about? Will she catch me in the act?

Look, she’s left her handbag open again. That seems like an invitation. Is she testing me?

Zanele before I get hold of them. I push Laura’s hand aside, and my nose burrows down into her bag because I know the little white mints always fall down to the bottom. Laura says they are not good for me, but I am so cute (and clever) that I get away with it, and Zanele loses out. She doesn’t really mind. She laughs because I am so clever. (I never eat chocolate, of course, although I’d like to, but Laura says chocolate is dangerous for dogs. We know a dog who had to have his stomach pumped because he ate a lot of black chocolate. He nearly died. So please tell your friends never to give chocolate to a dog.) Laura tells me that if I want to be a ‘sniffer dog’, then I should be on the lookout for something worth more than little white mints. She said she could teach me to watch out for banknotes or five rand coins on the ground, or to find her keys when she mislays them, but I have a mind of my own and I am not going to go looking for useless things when my nose tells me that there are treats in her bag. I have a sense of values. Oh, and I have learnt the trick of getting the paper off quite quickly. I am a very determined dog.

She’s not around. Here I go!

I might as well take a quick sniffle. After all, you shouldn’t tempt a person if they know you have a weakness, should you?

Photographs: Laura Pretorius Text: Shirley Bell

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