Dog went missing; later found at Witbank SPCA
On a lovely Saturday morning in October a family went shopping and when they returned, their dog was missing and their son was devastated.
On a lovely Saturday morning in October a family went shopping and when they returned, their dog was missing and their son was devastated.
On Saturday, October 27 Ms Yvonne Harmse went to the shops and left the Boston terrier at home. When she returned home, she noticed that the gate had been taken off the tracks and the dog Baba was missing.
“Someone must have stolen her as she has one blue eye,” said Harmse.
Harmse’s two-year old son was devastated as the dog was actually his dog. He used to feed the dog and play with her.
Without any hesitation Harmse started advertising that her dog was missing on all social media platforms.
By November 9 the dog still had not been found, that is when Harmse phoned the Witbank SPCA to enquire whether her dog had been handed in.
At the SPCA Mrs Simoné van Lingen spoke to Harmse and gave her an email address to send a photo to and advised that the SPCA would reply with a lost report that needed to be completed. The email address was given to Harmse and Van Lingen never heard from her again about the dog.
During this time Baba was handed into the SPCA and was placed in a kennel. The SPCA did not have a lost report or a photo to identify if this was the dog Harmse was looking for. The dog also has no collar or tag and was not microchipped.
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On Friday, November 23 the dog went up for adoption as it had been in the kennels for seven days.
By November 27 the notice that Baba was up for adoption was on Facebook and that is when Harmse saw that her dog was there. She phoned that evening and spoke to Inspector Nicolous Mahlangu; they discussed that she would be there the following morning.
Harmse went down to the SPCA with her son and her mother and asked to see her dog. Van Lingen and Inspector Mahlangu explained to her that she will have to readopt her dog as she had been in the kennels for more than seven days.
Harmse and her son went to the kennels and they saw Baba; the dog was crying so was Harmse and her son as they could only greet their dog through the fence.
Baba the Boston terrier went missing but was found at the Witbank SPCA.
Van Lingen and Inspector Mahlangu explained that Harmse had to pay R900 to get her dog back, R50 for house check and R850 for sterilisation and chipping of the dog.
Harmse was not happy about this, because according to her she sent a picture to the SPCA. When Inspector Mahlangu said that they received no email from her, he asked Harmse for the proof of the email sent to the SPCA and it was found that Harmse had not spelt “gmail” correctly. That is why the SPCA never received Harmse’s email about her dog that was missing.
The SPCA is not sure why Harmse did not receive a delivery status notification stating that the message was not delivered.
Harmse also admitted on a Facebook post that she had not correctly typed the email address but it was later found that all these comments were deleted.
Ms Natalée Pretorius, Witbank SPCA Manager, stated that it is not appreciated when members of the public swear and shout at the staff as they are only following procedures and protocol.
It remains the responsibility of the animal owner to search for your dog as the Witbank SPCA does not advertise lost and found pets.
Pretorius also requested that the public make a point of going in person to the SPCA as regularly as possible and look for their animals.
Fees for claiming your dog within the seven day pound time is R70 per day and R150 compulsory microchipping.
