Cape Town - The recent attacks on squirrels have been condemned by the Animal Welfare Society of South Africa (AWS SA), which has urged people not to eat them.
The plea comes after a vagrant attacked an Eastern Grey Squirrel in Plumstead, resulting in its death. AWS spokesperson Allan Perrins said one of their volunteers noticed the incident.
“Not that long ago one of our volunteers spotted a vagrant being cruel to a little squirrel. He was observed swinging the hapless little animal around by its tail and punching it.
“Despite the risks of confronting the deranged stranger she unhesitatingly grabbed the injured squirrel from him and sought our help,” he said.
AWS then sought assistance from Squirrel Rescue and Rehabilitation to get their opinion on how best to treat the animal.
“Unfortunately despite everyone’s best efforts to save the squirrel it died several hours later from complications associated with multiple bone breaks and fractures,” Perrins said.
“It must have been in excruciating pain and we can only guess how long it suffered before succumbing to its injuries.”
Lize Testa from Squirrel Rescue and Rehabilitation said people did not realise what they were doing when they handled these animals.
“Unfortunately all the ribs of the one side were broken, the pelvis was broken, it was quite bad,” she said.
Plumstead is home to numerous squirrels that are a wellspring of enjoyment for a large number of residents, however, they are as yet getting poached and eaten by frantic people.
“There are a lot of people without food, and they (squirrels) so often end up being food for people living on the streets.
“Of course, there are ways and means of killing whatever you need to eat but torturing an animal was essentially what was happening,” Testa explained.
“He was carrying him in a bag, swinging him around and in the end one of the ribs punctured the lung and that is how he died, so the torture he had to go through was not necessary.”
Perrins went on to say that, despite the Eastern Grey Squirrel being classified as vermin, invasive and a threat to their indigenous counterparts they arguably still add value and deserve to be dealt with humanely.
“Animals are poached and eaten by desperate individuals but for any animal regardless of their fate to be terrified and beaten to death is totally unacceptable and punishable,” he said.
Incidents of animal cruelty can be reported to the AWS SA Inspectorate Department at 021 692 2626 during office hours or 082 601 1761 after hours.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za