Chained and malnourished. This is the state in which a Greyton animal welfare activist found a dog belonging to the family of a prominent DA councillor.
But councillor Caroline Wood has claimed that her husband Norman owns the female dog. Police have charged him with animal neglect.
Wood said the dog had become emaciated when it refused the food which had been offered to it.
Ann Andrews, chairperson of the Greyton Animal Welfare Society, said she had received an anonymous tip-off about the dog and her puppies a week ago. She had then visited the house in Khunel Street, Genadendal, with another worker of the society.
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| 'There was no water for her to drink' |
"There was no one at home. At the back of the home we found an emaciated female dog chained to the door frame of a disused outside toilet," Andrews said.
She said the chain, attached to the dog, had been too short for her to reach her three puppies.
"There was no water for her to drink," Andrews said.
"There was a dog's dish with a considerable amount of vegetable peels in it.
"The chain was fastened around the dog's neck with wire. There was no roof on the toilet."
Along with these conditions, Andrews said she and her colleague also found dog faeces covering the entrance to the toilet.
Later in the day the Woods couple was still not at home. Andrews gave a letter to the couple's daughter, informing the family of what she had found on the property.
Andrews also photographed the dog and gave it food to entice it out of the toilet.
On Monday when she returned to the home, Andrews said there had been signs that the dog had been fed since her previous visit, but a nail was being used to shut the toilet in which the dog was kept.
Wood said she could not make any excuses for the state in which the family's dog was found.
"I'm making no excuses but she (Andrews) has to understand, I'm hardly at home (to see to the condition of the dog) and recently I had been away for eight days in the Eastern Cape."
In a sworn statement, Norman declared only that he was the owner of the dog, but did not go into further detail as to why it had been kept in such a neglected condition.
quinton.mtyala@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on June 04, 2009
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