Cats victims of Nyaope addicts?
The ugly face of drug addiction took a turn for the worst with a cat, tied by the neck with an electrical cord to a structure in the back of a shop, becoming the most recent victim of the ever growing drug problem in Middelburg.
During a joint operation, which saw the Middelburg Police and Steve Tshwete Municipality taking hands, health inspectors visited several businesses in the CBD.
The cat was discovered by inspectors visiting shops in the walkway between Walter Sisulu Street and Iraq Taxi Rank.
The shop owner vehemently denied accusations of animal cruelty. She pleaded with inspectors to let her keep her cat saying that she had no other choice but to tie up her pet during the day, for its own safety.
“The Nyaopes, they come and they take it,” she tried to explain in broken English.
The woman explained that drug addicts have stolen previous cats of hers. She claims that they sell the animals for money or exchange it for cigarettes at other stores and said that they have left her with no other choice but to keep the cat tied up during the day whilst she is working.
She said that she cannot leave the cat at home because the same fate awaits the animal there.
In a last attempt to prove that her cat is well cared for, she slipped the cord off its neck, picked it up and invited a Middelburg Observer journalist to pet it, saying that it will not ‘scratchy-scratch’ It was explained to her that animals cannot be kept in the same place where food is sold.
Prudence Magutle, Municipal Spokesperson, said in a report after the operation, the cat had been confiscated and handed over to the SPCA.
(See an article about the outcome of the operation elsewhere in today’s edition.)
