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Jobs scarce abroad, but South Africans move away
Owners go the cheap route to get rid of their animals.
Scores of South African pets are being given a death sentence by owners who are leaving the country to start new lives abroad.
Emigration euthanasia — putting down perfectly healthy animals — is on the rise as owners battle to cough up more than R20 000 to relocate their pets.
Animal welfare authorities say owners are opting for the cheaper option which comes, however, with an emotional and ethical price tag.
Animal rights activist Fiona Manuel said that with the increase in the number of pet owners who emigrate, the fate of the animals in the end came down to cost.
In the past six months, vets and animal welfare organisations have noted an influx of pets — earmarked for euthanasia or re-homing — from owners.
Manuel said: “Euthanasia is not illegal, it’s a personal choice... People are devastated, but they don’t have the money.”
Euthanasia posed an ethical dilemma for animal experts she said, adding that pets left at organisations were usually re-homed.
Besides the expense of transportation, animals going overseas spend at least six to seven months in quarantine, and have to be vaccinated and microchipped.
Although some pets are lucky to find new homes, many land up with animal abusers.
The abusers, they say, offer “free to good homes for animals” when in reality they either experiment with, breed, or use the dogs for fighting or work.
Chris Kuch, spokesman for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said: “We have tracked ‘free-to-good-home’ animals through identi-pet microchips to other countries in Africa, where they are being used for either security or mine-clearing work.”
Tracy Forte, founder of Wetnose, a Gauteng-based animal organisation, said: “The number of dogs coming in is horrific. About 50% to 60% of our animals coming are from people emigrating.”
She said: “We refer them to vets and most of them are put down because they can’t find homes for them.”
Last week, Wetnose saved two eight-month-old Bichon Frise dogs, whose owner was emigrating, from death.
Johannesburg businessman John de Vries, whose dog died recently, adopted Sasha and Nunu.
Breggie van Loggenberg, shelter manager of Friends of Rescued Animals, said they received about 100 pets from people who were emigrating in the past year.
Kuch said: “Animals coming to us is the best possible thing.”
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3 Opinion(s):
It is unbelievably sad to have to euthenase one's pets - especially at a time when one is going through the roller-coaster of emotions that comes with being an reluctant emigrant and leaving family and a lifetime of friends behind.
We put two elderly dogs down as we felt that they would not adapt to new owners or cope with the travel and quarantine. Our third dog was young and we brought him along. This also created severe guilt about the poor animal being in solitary confinement in a freezing cell for 4 months, and with us only managing to visit him on weekends. It was costly and I'm sure we only brought him along for our own benefit as he was young enough to be 'passed' on to another family.
Yah, this was the toughest part of leaving SA. We had three dogs but only got a home for one (my JR called Chico) The other two we had to take to the SPCA just a few days before we moved out!
The problem in the UK is no space and the quarantine for dogs is 6 months. So we had to do what we had to do. These are real things happening to real people folks. We are all paying the price for that "YES" vote in '92, all of us, in our own ways.
You guys have it right. I left a beautiful two-year old German Shepherd behind called "Boss" and couldn't face putting him through the Aussie quarantine process but luckily I have family that took him in. I am in SA at the moment and as I write this, I can see Boss outside my window.
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