Sheep slaughter at UCT angers organisation
Animal rights organisation, Beauty Without Cruelty, has complained that UCT has ignored its complaint about sheep being slaughtered on campus.
|||Cape Town - An animal rights organisation has complained that UCT has ignored its complaint, which was lodged two months ago, about sheep being slaughtered on campus.
Toni Brockhoven, national chairwoman of Beauty Without Cruelty, said slaughtering animals on campus was unacceptable for a variety of reasons, including being a potential health hazard because of flies being attracted by blood seeping into the grass.
A photograph retweeted by #RhodesMustFall on September 26 shows students cutting up what appears to be a freshly slaughtered sheep.
It says: “Today at UCT, Rhodes Must Fall slaughtered a sheep, drank umqombothi and hosted a marriage between two loving Blacks.”
Brockhoven tweeted UCT on October 5, saying: “Informal slaughter on campus unacceptable; animal cruelty; disrespectful, morally questionable. Pls investigate.”
Two days later she received a reply from UCT: “Thank you for messaging us. We were alerted to the incident and deputy vice-chancellor Anwar Mall is currently investigating this matter.”
On Monday she wrote to Mall asking for a response and informed the university that she had reported the matter to the SPCA and intended to take it further.
UCT spokeswoman Patricia Lucas said it had received an e-mailed complaint from Heather Howe, of Beauty Without Cruelty, on Monday. She said on the same day, an inspector from the SPCA visited UCT and spoke to a university official, but no further action was taken by the SPCA.
#RhodesMustFall’s Brian Kamanzi said he only knew of one case where a sheep was slaughtered for a commitment ceremony on campus, and added it was done humanely.
He said he didn’t have a problem with sheep being slaughtered on campus and said there were plenty of people able to perform the slaughter.
Cape Argus
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