A Heinz Park resident experienced the shock of her life when she discovered her cats, Meatballs and Prinkles, dead in her front yard on Tuesday morning.
Nuroeneesha Coetzee says: “I took my son to school and didn’t see anything.
“I hung the washing out and I was about an hour and a half in the house.
“When I came out again I saw he was lying there.
“I called out his name but no response and that is when I saw he was dead,” she explains.
According to her, there were no blood or physical marks on the cats when she found their lifeless bodies.
“Because there were two cats at the same time dead in my yard and there was no blood on them that I can say they were killed,” Nuroeneesha says.
The hartseer lady tells the Daily Voice that this is her third cat that died so instantly and mysteriously.
“The third cat was also small and he also died at a young age because he was poisoned.
“My son came out of school and I told him about what happened to the cats.
“He didn’t believe me so I showed him the picture and he was very sad about it.
“He asks every time who did it and he is only nine years old.
“He is very sad and looks at pictures every time,” she explains.
Spokesperson for the Animal Welfare Society of SA, Allan Perrins, says that if the cats were poisoned it is against the law.
"If it is somebody putting down poison even if they are well-intentioned, it is against the law.
“The law strictly prohibits the distribution of any form of poison, what happens if a child consumes it and dies?
“We strongly condemn the use of any forms of poisons,” he says.
Perrins says that animal cruelty on the Cape Flats and in other suburbs paints a grim picture.
“Looking at about 55 animal cruelty cases every single month which is an incredible number of cases.
“Cruelty has got no barriers, there’s as much cruelty in the leafy green suburbs of Cape Town,” he says.
byron.lukas@inl.co.za