A cat was killed by being cooked alive in a microwave oven belonging to students at a men’s residence at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, News24 reported on Thursday.
Tango, pet cat of a campus security chief’s family, reportedly died an ”extremely painful” death.
Each of the residents of the Pinewood men’s residence at the university’s Pinetown campus for student teachers faces a R100 fine if the guilty parties do not own up by Friday.
The university’s management and provincial education minister Ina Cronje have condemned the act as ”barbaric” and ”shocking”.
News24 quoted an officer for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Roland Fivaz, as saying the only other similar case he had come across was that of a sangoma who had put three live kittens into boiling water.
According to Fivaz, cruelty to animals carries a penalty of a fine of up to R20 000 or two years’ imprisonment.
He said it is particularly disturbing that some students laughed about the incident at a meeting.
”It was probably students who thought they were playing a prank. If this was not the case, the person should get psychological help.”
The family of Nareen Rambharren, chief of security services on the campus, last saw Tango on Sunday night when she came trotting up to them on their arrival at their campus flat.
On Monday morning, one of the security guards came to them, looking for a box. A cleaner had discovered the dead cat in a microwave oven in the communal kitchen, said News24.
Professor Kobus Visser of the physics department at the University of Stellenbosch said although the cat would have died within minutes in the microwave oven, it would have been an extremely painful death.
Microwaves are a kind of electromagnetic wave that affects polar molecules such as water. They allow the molecules to release energy and thus become heated.
Visser said: ”Like a human, a cat’s body is about 80% water. This means the nervous system would boil before death occurred.”
Apart from external burns, the tissue in the body may explode because of the cooking process, said Visser.
Trevor Wills, dean of student affairs, said the university is doing everything in its power to bring the guilty parties to book, News24 reported. — Sapa