Johannesburg - In a time of Nkandlas and Krejcirs and e-tolls, an unlikely battle was set to play out in the Johannesburg High Court on Wednesday afternoon between the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) and the SA Federation of Sleddog Sports (SAFSS).
The latter group has been around since 1992, bringing together sledding clubs from around the country.
But the NSPCA says quite firmly that dog racing is illegal, and has been since 1949.
The SAFSS is looking for a court order that will see it recognised as a sporting federation, exempt it from the law that makes dog racing illegal, and force the NSPCA to back off from interfering in its events.
“Internationally, sleddog racing is both a professional and an amateur outdoor activity,” federation president Wolfgang Meyer says in court papers. “Genetically, sleddogs require to pull and to run appropriate distances for their general well-being, and over the course of the last century, many disciplines of sleddog sports have emerged.” He said that in South Africa, this took the form of dry-sledding, where dogs race on dirt, grass or sand tracks.
He said the distances were between 3km and 10km - the tracks not too rough or stony, and the temperature carefully monitored on race days, maxing at about 13°C. Dogs also had to be trained, fit and inspected before being allowed to compete. “The physical well-being of the sleddog is put before any other consideration,” according to Meyer.
But the NSPCA says that simply isn’t the case.
It says investigations show that animal welfare is compromised for the sport, specifically citing the nationals in Kroonstad in 2010, where several dogs were allegedly forced to race despite having severe gastroenteritis. Another competitor’s dogs were allegedly severely malnourished, fed on a diet of fat alone to keep them in their racing prime. Even dogs not bred for sledding were being allowed to compete. And there are other ways of exercising sledding dogs.
“In short, sledding is not suited to South Africa,” says NSPCA chief executive Marcelle Meredith in court papers. Sledding dogs are not adapted to South Africa’s climate and terrain, while local dogs are not adapted to sledding.
“Over the years we have dealt with many people who have… attempted to introduce this ‘sport’ into our country,” says Meredith. “We have consistently opposed its introduction.”
SAFSS says the Kroonstad complaint was an isolated incident, and that it would welcome a partnership with the NSPCA.
“If the (NSPCA’s) real concern is the welfare of the dogs, (they) should rather work with (us) to ensure that the welfare of dogs is maintained at recreational and competitive levels,” said Meyer.
So what does the law say?
The niggly bit of law at the centre of this conflict is the Abolition of Dog Racing and the Prohibition of Betting on Dog Races Ordinance - or Ordinance 4 of 1949.
It defines a “dog race” as “includes any whippet race”, whippets being a breed of racing dog.
And it bans people from holding dog race meetings, attending them or making bets on them.
But SAFSS says this law doesn’t apply to them because they don’t fall under the definition of “dog race”.
They say the ordinance is specifically making reference to dog racing where the point is betting on the race, which they don’t do. Not to mention that their dogs aren’t whippets.
Not so, says the NSPCA. It says the ordinance applies to all dog racing, not just racing where betting is involved and not just the racing of whippets. It says sled racing “squarely falls” within the ordinance’s confines.
The Star