Families still seek answers on dogs’ whereabouts

Thando Mlolomba has approached the Randburg SPCA to send her additional documentation pertaining to her pit bull, Cosmo, but has been denied.

Mlolomba still believes her Cosmo is alive, despite an admission from the Randburg SPCA that he was put to sleep. She wants to get to the bottom of what happened to him.

What exasperates her further is the alleged lies the Randburg SPCA told her to her face when she was looking for Cosmo.

She is now considering seeking legal counsel and wants all documentation the Randburg SPCA has of Cosmo from the day he was brought in.

“I requested for documentation to be sent to me, and it was denied. I was told that I would only be able to view the documentation if I attended a meeting with their legal representative, and anyone else they deem appropriate. Yet in the statement, it clearly says that they are an open book and anyone can view their documents,” she said.

Man’s best friend

A dog is a man’s best friend and Mlolomba is having a hard time dealing with the loss of her best friend Cosmo.

She is not the only one having a tough time as Ellen Cheng’s daughter, Kallen, who knew her dog, Tyson since he was weeks old, is also struggling to come to terms with what happened to him.

Both the dogs, who coincidentally are pit bulls, were put down by the Randburg SPCA last year.

When 16-year-old Kallen read the Randburg SPCA’s statement, she could not verbalise her feelings and between sobs, said could not believe that the statement did not contain an apology from the animal welfare organisation.

“Why do people find the need to lie and cover for themselves instead of being upfront about what happened. Come out and acknowledge that they messed up and apologise. All they tell us in the statement is that they will rectify the situation and that is all they can give us?

Everyone is praising them for the good work they have done and it should be so, but it does not cancel out all the wrong things they have done,” she cried.

Kallen could not hold back the tears as she spoke about the relationship she had with Tyson.

The dog was also put down by the animal welfare organisation after contracting kennel cough. She is struggling to understand why Tyson was put down over a treatable condition.

“I had held him when he was only a few weeks old. He’d been with me through everything. He protected us and we loved him so much it hurt. l lost my best friend due to a facility that can’t even tell a child the truth about what happened to her pet.

Now I’ll have to finish high school without him by my side. I want justice and I want the truth out and I want all the other animals still in there to be safe,” she said tearfully.

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