Local animal welfare initiatives Youth Pet Care and Steenberg Paws are calling on residents not to hurt and kill wild animals, this after a porcupine was beaten to death in Retreat earlier this month.
Maurice Mesias from Steenberg Paws says it was the fifth porcupine to be killed in the past six months.
“The porcupine was in a residential area when it was killed. It lived in the Zandvlei Nature Reserve and moved across the train tracks up to Retreat. It was found in someone’s yard where it was beaten to death.
“We contacted the reserve manager at Zandvlei and they are going to put a programme together to discuss the importance of wildlife. The reserve manager told us that it was the fifth porcupine killed in six months. Education is very important.”
He adds that residents need to be educated on how to treat wildlife and who to contact when a porcupine is found.
“If you start with educating children, they will take the message home. It was very sad what happened. We collected the body and handed it over to the Cape of Good Hope SPCA in Grassy Park.”
Mesias says residents can reach out to him if they don’t know what to do.
“If a resident finds a porcupine or any wild animal, they must call the SPCA and if they can’t get hold of them, they are welcome to call me. Also, if you find a porcupine, just stand back and just call us. We will assist immediately.”
Nazrudeen Adams from Lavender Hill, who runs Youth Pet Care, recently shared a video of the porcupine found on social media.
“Hello community, this video was forwarded to us from our partners Steenberg Paws Maurice Mesias. This porcupine was beaten to death by children. We (are) looking into giving educational events at nature reserves to take our kids to the reserve to teach them about wildlife because all of them think wildlife is dangerous.”
