A man butchered a six-week-old puppy, put it on a braai – and then ate it in front of his shocked family.
The 43-year-old drug addict was arrested on Thursday after one of his own relatives asked a neighbour to call the animal welfare bosses.
Cops were notified and he was arrested a short time later.
The drug addict is due to appear in court soon in connection with the horrific incident.
Animal welfare workers have described the case as the worst they have ever come across.
And the man’s relatives admit he has abused helpless animals before – and once butchered a defenceless little cat.
The Daily Voice was present as animal welfare workers inspected the man’s family home in Woodlands, Mitchell’s Plain, on Thursday.
The dog killer lives in a small shack at the back of the house.
There, the animal workers discovered the female pup’s grisly remains.
Only its burnt head and intestines remained.
But they also found the butchered dog’s terrified-looking mother – named Lance – and her six surviving pups, who they rescued from a similar sickening death.
They have been taken into the care of the SPCA.
Cops say the puppy killer – who cannot be identified until he is formally charged – instantly admitted to his crime.
He will soon appear before the Mitchell’s Plain Magistrates’ Court on animal cruelty charges and with violating the Animal Protection Act.
“Mitchell’s Plain police arrested a 43-year-old man in connection with animal cruelty at a house in Woodlands,” confirms police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel André Traut.
“It is alleged the suspect killed a small dog and placed the carcass on an open fire. It is also alleged he ate the dog.”
Relatives and friends of the man admit he openly boasted he was going to kill the puppy, braai it and then eat it.
And just before 10am the drug addict did just that – right in front of his shocked nieces and nephews.
“I was doing washing and then my uncle said to me he will take a puppy and cut it and braai it and eat it,” his distraught 18-year-old niece says.
“Ek het gedink hy maak ’n joke [I thought he was joking].”
His 27-year-old nephew says he witnessed his uncle slicing the screaming puppy’s neck open.
“The women called me and he had the puppy in his hand and sat on a drom [drum],” he says.
“The puppy was screaming as he slit the throat.
“Then he sliced open the torso and pulled out the insides.
“And then he skinned it and he took out the intestines.
“I’m in shock because he could have done this to my child.”
He says his uncle then washed the puppy’s blood off his hands before placing it on an open fire.
The man stood twisting and turning the dead pup on the blaze before he began to eat it.
Another shocked relative called a neighbour and asked them to alert the authorities.
The Cape of Good Hope SPCA’s Inspectorate Peter Eccles responded to the call.
He described it as the worst case of animal cruelty he has dealt with in his three-year career.
Peter says: “When I spoke to him, he told me: ‘I slit the puppy’s throat, skinned it and braaied it and I ate it’.
“He said he read it somewhere that the SPCA said it was OK and I explained to him that it was not.”
Peter recoiled in shock when the puppy’s head rolled out of the fire drum.
“I saw the gallie [fire drum] and I kicked it and then the head rolled out and then I saw the intestines,” adds Peter.
“I then found the mother and the six puppies, three male and three females.
“This is extremely horrific. I’ve never had a guy just say I cut up a dog and ate it.”
Peter says he had to first chase the man before taking him to the cop shop.
One neighbour, a former policeman, also claims the dog killer boasted the night that he was going to kill the pup.
“I told him – as an ex-cop – you will be arrested,” the neighbour tells the Daily Voice.
*This article was published in the Daily Voice