Brendan Murray from the Owl Rescue Centre said Coca-Cola is a 'serial problem'.
Things are tough for Coca-Cola South Africa at the moment after it announced in September that it would be cutting jobs and closing plants in Bloemfontein and East London.
It might now get even tougher, as many South Africans vowed to boycott its products after an owl was killed in its factory in Midrand last week.
Conservation group Owl Rescue Centre said what occurred at the bottling plant “completely floored us”.
Owl killed at Coca-Cola bottling plant
According to Brendan Murray, from the Owl Rescue Centre, Coca-Cola South Africa had called a pest control company to remove the bird. The woman from the pest removal company, however, didn’t know how to remove an owl, so she called the conservation group.
“She explained the urgency of the matter to us. All production was stopped and Coca-Cola was losing hundreds of thousands in revenue,” wrote Murray on his Facebook post.
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Murray hurried to get to the plant, but while on his way, he received another call from the pest removal lady informing him that the owl had been killed.
“It’s clear that they don’t have any value for our wildlife. It seems as if they were not prepared to lose more revenue,” Murray continued in his post.
NSPCA investigation
The two most common species of owl in South Africa are the spotted eagle owl and the barn owl. Murray said he thinks it was a barn owl at the factory, as they are more common in that area.
National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) spokesperson Jacques Peacock said its Wildlife Protection Unit is investigating the matter and is trying to engage with the company.
Murray told The Citizen that Coca-Cola South Africa has not been willing to talk to the Owl Rescue Centre since the incident.
“We tried to get hold of them; they just cut our calls,” he said.
The conservationist said the Owl Rescue Centre works with hundreds of corporates and “all of them, besides one or two, have a lot of time for wildlife”.
“They phone us, they allow us time to get in there and catch and relocate the wildlife. Most corporates are very helpful when there is wildlife on their sites.”
Coca-Cola is apparently not one of them, though.
“This is the third or fourth time we’ve had issues with Coca-Cola. They are a serial problem.”
South Africans vow to boycott Coca-Cola
After the owl was killed, South Africans reacted on social media by saying they would boycott the company.
“Boycott Coca-Cola. All their products are bad for us anyway,” wrote Zagryda Nicol.
“Ironically, the owl was probably inside their plant doing pest control of its own,” said Walter Trevisan.
“I will literally stop buying Coca-Cola not only because of this owl, but because the owl in situ means there are rats,” said Robyn Eshelby-Theart.
“Let’s make sure this gets right up to the big boys in the US so that they can look at the damage something like this can do to the reputation of a big brand. A corporate company should know better. Consumers do not take lightly to this kind of thing,” said Lida Oosthuizen.
Tasha Sloan wrote: “That’s the last Coke for me.”
Coca-Cola did not respond to The Citizen’s questions by the time the article was published.
Coca-Cola’s previous controversy with owls
This is not the first time Coca-Cola has made headlines because of its treatment of owls in South Africa.
In April 2021, a rival drinks manufacturer, Kingsley Beverages, stepped up after Coca-Cola failed to keep its promise to cover the cost of rehabilitation of one of the juvenile spotted eagle owls rescued from Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Hercules, Pretoria.
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At the time, Murray’s wife, Danelle, who also works at the Owl Rescue Centre, said Coca-Cola had deceived consumers into thinking it cared about environmental issues. It had even named the owl Hercules on its social media campaign.
After Kingsley Beverages paid for the rehabilitation, Coca-Cola South Africa apologised and blamed the non-payment on “miscommunication”. It also committed to working closely with the Owl Rescue Centre.
It seems like that was a miscommunication as well.
