Randburg SPCA responds to allegations it misled the public

After residents raised concerns with Randburg Sun that dogfighting might somehow be involved, the organisation said it was not involved in cover-ups to protect employees or dogfighting.

The Randburg SPCA released a statement on Facebook on 30 January in reaction to two articles published by the Randburg Sun in which the organisation appeared to have misled members of the public.

The first allegation against the SPCA was published in a Randburg Sun report titled SPCA under fire in the Week 19 January 2018 issue, detailing Ellen Cheng’s experience. Read the full story here.

A second report highlighted the experience of the Mlolomba family, who lost their dog called Cosmo, was published in the 2 February issue with the headline SPCA in spotlight again. Read more on this story here.

Both families’ dogs had been put down by the SPCA.

The Randburg Sun is committed to presenting well-rounded stories to our readers. Every effort was made to obtain comment from the Randburg SPCA before either of the articles were published. Randburg Sun visited the Randburg SPCA on 15 January, before the article SPCA Under Fire was published giving the organisation the opportunity to respond, which manager Craig Rudman did. In the case of the Mloloba family, the SPCA was given five days to respond to a list of questions. Although they acknowledged receiving the email, they did not reply back to the questions provided until after the newspaper had gone to print. They have since released a statement on their Facebook page, which both admits to the incidents and slams the newspaper for exposing them.

The organisation stated that it did not link the rescued dog to the one in the missing report, due to a discrepancy in area and breed. In the missing report, Cosmo was identified as a cross-pit bull, while the inspectors identified him as a purebred.

In the statement, the SPCA also claimed that they receive many white pit bulls as it is currently a popular breed, and Cosmo would not have stood out. A decision was made to put Cosmo down because he was aggressive and had a skin condition, making him unsuitable to rehome, according to the statement.

The statement added that the organisation is only legally obliged to keep a stray animal for 96 hours, after which a decision is taken, on a case by case basis, whether to euthanase the animal or put it up for adoption. Both available space and limited resources are contributing factors to the final decision.

The statement claimed that Randburg SPCA staff had panicked when questioned about where the two dogs were, and in an attempt to protect the reputation of the organisation, had told the owners that the animals had been rehomed, rather than the truth, that they had in fact been put to sleep. According to the statement, all staff involved received final written warnings and were stripped of their bonuses.

General manager of SPCA Randburg, Craig Rudman. Photo: File

After residents raised concerns with Randburg Sun that dogfighting might somehow be involved, the organisation said it was not involved in cover-ups to protect employees, and denied anything related to dogfighting.

The Mlolomba and Cheng families are angry that the SPCA staff lied to them about what had happened to their dogs, even after repeated visits and desperate phone calls to them.

Following the SPCA’s Facebook post, Thando Mlolomba has come out swinging. She called out the animal welfare organisation on their Facebook page where they had posted the statement.

She said, “Since we as the Mlolomba family are being considered as liars and [that] clearly our suspicions are false, I will attach all the email correspondence on this post so that everyone and anyone will see how allegedly helpful you were towards us from the 20th October until the 6th December.

“How many lies your organisation told us and how ridiculously unsympathetic your staff [were] when they intentionally lied to us and practically told us to forget about our dog and ‘just find a new one’.

“I would love the three staff members involved to be tagged in this post so they can openly deny to the public how they undermined our intelligence and told us that it is not the SPCA’s responsibly to assist owners to find their missing animals. How we were told that people who filed missing reports with you, [should not expect you to call them back], as you have internal policies [whereby] you don’t need to disclose to the public, and the ridiculous reasons we were given as to why we were not called when you received our dog. I can’t believe this.

“The last email I received was [for me] to await your response following your employees’ disciplinary hearings, how dare you tell the public that you didn’t hear anything from us when the words ‘we will keep you informed’ [were the last words from you]. As the organisation that did us wrong, I don’t even see why I had to email you more than 30 days later to ask for that feedback. I will also request all the parties who were involved in this to also put in their response. Thank you.”

Thando’s comments echoed Cheng’s who had also claimed the Randburg SPCA was lying to save their own skin. “If their staff is not trained well enough, then why are they dealing with people?

“When they don’t know something, is it so easy for them to lie and back each other up like that. I had to approach the media for me to even get acknowledged by the Randburg SPCA. And all I wanted was the truth. If you look at the records of those who were brought in for disciplinary hearings, there are experienced staff members among them. So how could they feel bad for me and lie when they don’t even know me?

Cheng still believes that Tyson may have been sold to a dogfighting ring, a claim which the SPCA vehemently denies. “Is it a coincidence that this incident happened to two pit bulls and not other breeds? Why is it like that?”

Randburg SPCA lastly stated that the Randburg Sun is trying to discredit the hard work done by its team by ignoring the thousands of feel-good stories from the organisation. Randburg Sun acknowledges the fantastic work done by the Randburg SPCA, but cannot ignore complaints when they do arise.