Johannesburg - The NSPCA plans to lay eight charges against National Council of Provinces chairwoman over the alleged neglect of animals on her farm, it said on Friday.
“The eight charges are against Modise as the owner of the farm and any people who lived at the premises,” National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) executive director Marcelle Meredith said.
The charges, relating to contraventions of the Animals Protection Act, would be laid at the Buffelshoek police station in Potchefstroom, North West, on Friday.
Modise reportedly bought the farm Modderfontein, near Potchefstroom in North West, about three years ago.
On Saturday, July 5, the police and SPCA officials found starving and dead animals on the farm.
About 85 pigs had begun cannibalising 58 dead pigs, and were reportedly drinking their own urine. Sheep, geese, goats, and ducks were among the more than 100 dead animals found. Many others had to be euthanased.
It appeared the animals had been without water and food for a week, possibly two. There were no farmworkers on the property, no electricity, and the water pumps were broken.
The Mail&Guardian and Beeld newspapers reported that the vet who performed the post mortems on several pigs' carcasses refused to have anything more to do with the case.
Dr Sameer Abbas, a veterinary surgeon practising in Potchefstroom, also refused to hand over his report on the matter.
Meredith said although the SPCA had its own report on the discoveries at the farm, Abbas had post mortem reports after he took carcasses and animal tissue for tests.
The eight counts include:
* ill-treatment and neglect of animals; being sheep, goats, pigs, chickens and geese, at Modderfontein;
* negligently confining or securing animals to cause unnecessary suffering, or keeping them in a place which afforded inadequate shelter from heat or cold weather;
* negligently starving or under-feeding animals;
* failing to render or procure veterinary treatment for the animals, therefore causing them unnecessary suffering;
* abandoning the animals to cause them unnecessary suffering; and
* unlawfully and intentionally contributing to any of the aforesaid acts.
Sapa