Modise animal cruelty case resumes
MORE witnesses are today set to testify in the animal cruelty case against National Assembly Speaker Thandi Modise.
Modise appeared in the Potchefstroom Regional Court yesterday where the trial against her continued following a postponement on December 3 last year.
The case arose after the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) obtained a warrant to inspect the animals on a farm belonging to Modise in Modderfontein in the district of Tlokwe in 2014.
The NSPCA had received a tip-off indicating that the animals on the property had been abandoned.
A statement by the NSPCA said it found that Modise’s farm was littered with the carcasses of over 50 pigs and other dead animals, such as geese, ducks, sheep and goats.
The NSPCA had been forced to put down more than 224 animals at the farm when it visited the farm in July 2014.
“Over 100 pigs, sheep, chickens and goats were found without food and water, and the animals were found dead and dying.
“It was one of the cruellest cases of animal abuse that the NSPCA had come across.
“These animals were denied basic minimum care and suffered neglect, starvation and abandonment,” said the statement.
The head of AfriForum’s private prosecution unit, advocate Gerrie Nel, had pursued the private prosecution of the case on behalf of the NSPCA.
Modise, who faces six counts of contravening the Animals Protection Act, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The case continues.