Johannesburg – The SPCA has revealed that the Carletonville farm where decaying carcasses of more than 4 000 chickens were found is a government-funded project.
The SPCA made the grim discovery early this month where they found the carcasses of the chickens that had died of starvation after getting a tip-off.
Only 19 chickens were alive but they were dehydrated and starving.
According to the SPCA’s Keshvi Nair, they were unsure of how long exactly the animals were there “but it is evident that it would have been an extended period of time seeing that the animals appeared to have starved to death”.
Nair also said when they arrived at the farm, there was no one working there except for a man who was no longer an employee as he had resigned three months prior to the SPCA’s inspection.
The chickens and the plot on which they were found, Nair said, are shared between multiple farmers.
One of them, she said, has stepped forward and taken accountability for this tragedy.
“It is unknown exactly how many farmers are involved. The farm was a government-funded project.
“The farmer that came forward is the chairman of the project. He resides in Soweto, which is where we assume he was at the time we made the discovery.
“Contact has been made with the chairman, manager and committee assigned to the project,” she said.
“Carletonville SPCA intends on opening a case of animal cruelty, and are in the process of trying to determine who the remaining farmers are so they can also be held accountable for the suffering of the animals.”
Nair also revealed that there were only chickens at the farm and no other animals.
In 2014, the NSPCA obtained a warrant to inspect animals on Speaker of Parliament Thandi Modise’s R4.8 million farm in the North West after receiving a tip-off that animals on the property had been abandoned for two months.
The NSPCA later claimed that it found that 79 animals had died, 58 of them pigs. The NSPCA said it had managed to save about 30 sheep and goats, 16 chickens and nine geese.
The remaining 85 pigs were feeding off the rotten carcasses of other pigs.
The NSPCA was also forced to put down more than 224 animals.
The only worker on the farm at the time, Tebogo Moekaedi, and his family said he had been there for two months without pay and with nothing to feed the animals.
AfriForum is prosecuting Modise privately after the National Prosecuting Authority declined to prosecute for animal cruelty even though the lobby group said it had presented a strong case against her.
IOL