The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has issued a Kuils River pet store with a warning following allegations of animal cruelty.
This comes after a Kuils River resident posted a picture on Twitter, on Tuesday March 19, of eight pit bull puppies huddled on top of each other in a cage. The picture caused a stir on the social media site.
A sign above the cage reads: “Pitbulls, Rocky Spike bloodline” (sic) and offers a price of R1 200 per animal.
The complainant then tweeted that the puppies had been kept in a hamster cage for a week without any food and water.
But the complainant blocked Northern News when we approached them on Facebook and Twitter for comment.
Northern News visited Pets Best Friend pet store in Nooiensfontein Road, De Kuilen, on Friday March 22, but the puppies were no longer there.
Store owner Charles Lambert said they had been returned to their owner, whom he described as a “good friend”, after he had learnt about the post on social media.
Mr Lambert said he planned to sue the Twitter complainant for slander.
“I have been running this pet store for 10 years, but now my name and store are being dragged through the mud. I will be taking this further,” he said.
According to him, the puppies were not kept at the store for a week and were kept in a rabbit cage, not a hamster cage.
“The puppies did not stay overnight, they were there for the day, and the owner fetched them later in the evening,” said Mr Lambert.
He said an agreement between him and the owner was that he could leave the puppies at the shop to be sold, providing only water while the owner brought food for them twice a day.
“The puppies were six weeks old, and they need to be fed twice a day. I only supplied water for them,” he said.
Asked if he got something out of the deal if puppies were to be sold, he said: “Usually if customers ask us to sell their puppies or kittens, we charge them R50 per sale, but with this litter, we did not charge anything.”
Roxanne Groenewald, an inspector at Animal Anti-Cruelty League, an animal protection organisation, said one of their staff members had sent inspectors to investigate after seeing the Twitter post.
“When our inspectors arrived, there were no puppies being held in a hamster cage,” she said.
The inspector had been told by the store owner that the SPCA was already on the case, she said.
Cape of Good Hope SPCA spokeswoman Belinda Abraham said a complaint had been laid with the SPCA on Tuesday March 19.
She said an inspector had been sent to the pet store and issued it warning for confining an animal in too small a space.
She said, “Although the SPCA is opposed to the donation or sale of all live animals to pet shops or similar outlets and the sale of live animals by pet shops , it is not illegal in terms of the Animals Protection Act.
“The SPCA will continue to monitor this pet shop and other pet shops within our jurisdiction,” she said.