Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has been issued with a written warning to stop a R750 000 rodent control strategy, rolled out in Khayelitsha last month, aimed at catching rats using baited cages before drowning them.
Alwyn Marais, an inspector with the National Council of the SPCA’s Special Projects Unit, issued the warning to the city, saying the drowning of any animal was inhumane and in contravention of the Animal Protection Act.
The city was warned to stop the practice immediately.
Marais said if the city failed to retrieve the cages used to drown rats, both the “perpetrator and the city would face charges of cruelty to animals”.
The city has already distributed 358 cages to residents in Khayelitsha and has not been able to retrieve a single one.
Health councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli said residents who had started participating in the project were understandably reluctant to return the cages because this method of eliminating rodents had proven to be far more effective than the block-baiting (chemical) method used before.
He said it had reduced the risk of exposure to poison in densely populated areas and had created work opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme.
There have been a number of reported cases of babies being bitten by rats in Khayelitsha in recent years, while in July a 10-month-old boy died after eating rat poison, which had been placed on a side plate behind a cupboard.
He had been playing at home and “somehow managed to get hold of the plate with the poison on it”. He was rushed to hospital but declared dead on arrival.
Marais said he appreciated that the city wanted to move away from poison, which could take up to five days to kill a rat and also poisoned secondary animals such as owls and falcons that fed on the carcasses.
But he said using the live trap cages to drown the rats was illegal.
Marais said the city had failed in its waste management in the area, while the community also needed to take more responsibility for its waste.
The city earlier told the Cape Argus that drowning the rats had been deemed the most humane and practical way of exterminating the rats.
But Marais said he could not believe the city had not checked whether the project had been legal when it was launched.
Mamkeli said that from a city health perspective, rodent extermination was done on the grounds of protecting human health and well-being.
“If we do not take action to manage the rodent population, we run the risk of an outbreak of communicable disease. Rodent extermination is a controversial subject that can be costly and unpractical. The city has to weigh up the human risk against its resources.”
He added the NSPCA’s problem “lay not in the method of catching the rats, but rather their disposal”.
“While we await clarity on what would be considered humane disposal of the rodents, City Health has reverted to block-baiting in Khayelitsha.”
Cape Argus
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