Rudolph Mulder, convicted of cruelty to animals after a Guy Fawke’s prank, has already contravened part of his sentence, reports Ricardo Dunn
Just 24 hours after being sentenced, dog torturer Rudolph Dawid Mulder (41) went awol and was sentenced to 72 hours in jail last weekend.
He disappeared three times during the night while under house arrest, and on two occasions when his parole officer, Colonel Martin van Staden, visited he was drunk.
Mulder, convicted last week in Bloemfontein, was sentenced to 768 hours of community service and 24 months of house arrest and correctional supervision for killing a dog by inserting a firecracker in its rectum.
The sentence has been the strongest yet in South Africa for a crime committed against an animal.
Another condition of his sentence was that he had to go into an alcohol rehabilitation programme.
Mulder began his community service on Wednesday at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Bloemfontein. He will have to work at the centre for eight hours every Monday. His duties include scrubbing kennel floors, washing tiles in the clinic and cleaning operating tables. He will also be expected to do gardening and whatever physical labour the SPCA requires, said Marc van den Berg, a representative for the Bloemfontein SPCA.
The public have told us it was ironic that Mulder had to work with animals after what he had done; however, he will not be allowed to deal with animals unless he is under supervision, said Van den Berg.
One of Mulder’s more unpleasant duties at the SPCA will be to carry dead animals to the incinerater and clean the furnace afterwards.
Magistrate M J Krugel said at the trial last month the fact that Mulder had inflicted this agony on an innocent animal, and then stood laughing while a 14 year-old boy went for help was disgusting.
The veterinarian who performed the post-mortem testified that after the cracker exploded, the dog’s abdomen ruptured. He said the dog had suffered excruciating pain before she died two hours later.
Mulder claims his friend, Patrick Hodgkiss (47), an ex-policeman, held the dog while he (Mulder) inserted the firecracker into the dog. Hodgkiss, who is divorced, has custody of his 14 year-old son.
Hodgkiss appeared in the Bloemfontein magistrate’s court yesterday.