Cape Town - A company which buries and cremates pets has been reported to the Animal Welfare Society (AWS) after being accused of dumping clients’ animal remains at a waste site.
The director of a veterinary practice says he was horrified when he noticed men driving an RIPets vehicle dumping bags at the Vissershok dump site earlier this month.
The AWS’s Allan Perrins confirmed they were investigating the claims.
RIPets Services buries and cremates pets for several vets on behalf of their clients.
The witness, who asked to remain anonymous, says: “On Friday, 10 January, I was at Vissershok dumpsite at about 1.50 pm when the RIPets vehicle pulled up alongside me.
“The RIPets staff then proceeded to discard animal carcasses from their vehicle onto the top of the trench and I noticed that there were a lot of green bags being discarded.
“After their vehicle left, I removed tags from some of the bags and it was plain to see that instead of cremating these animals, they have chosen to dump them.”
Isolated
“If they say, as I suspect they will, that this was a once-off, isolated occurrence then I can assure you that it was not.”
In a statement to the witness’ practice, RIPets admits the green bags, used for cremation, were taken in error to the dumpsite.
“Unfortunately the RIPets crematorium had a maintenance shut down in December which resulted in a backlog of pets collected.
“December is undoubtedly one of our busiest times and once the facility was operational again on the 26th of December, the crematorium was used mostly for the return of ashes of pets we had collected.
“It has now become evident that during this period, there were a number of green bags that got stored together with the black (burial) bags in our cold room facility.
“These were unfortunately by
mistake loaded with the black bags and taken to the CCT burial site.”
But, Brian Scott, the CEO of RIPets and BCL Waste Management, sang a different tune.
Scott said there was no mistake on their side and claimed his company could be framed.
“It is also true that in these days of ‘fake news’ and the fact that photographs can be doctored that one shouldn’t believe every allegation,” he said.
“We are in the process of investigating these allegations and will have a detailed answer as soon as we have all the facts.”