Charges of stock theft may be brought against those who slaughtered pigs — or stole them — at an accident scene, the King William’s Town Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said on Wednesday.
SPCA spokesperson Annette Rademeyer said the police and the Independent Complaints Directorate had taken statements from SPCA staff, traced addresses from the number plates of individuals on the scene and gathered witness statements.
These details would be handed over to the police’s stock-theft unit, who would take the cases forward.
The society had been inundated with calls from the public expressing horror, Rademeyer said, and had received a R10 000 donation from Brown’s restaurant and wine cellar in Rivonia towards their costs.
The SPCA alleged that after a truck transporting pigs overturned near Middeldrift on Sunday, onlookers killed the pigs for meat and some police officers took pigs away.
Rademeyer said 47 pigs were euthanised by the SPCA and at least 30 were killed in the accident.
She said police did ”absolutely nothing” to assist the SPCA or to secure the scene, despite numerous requests.
”Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, some members of the police deliberately removed number plates from their official vehicles and loaded animals in the vans to steal them,” Rademeyer said. — Sapa