Double dose of happiness for stabbed donkey
When doing a follow-up on a negative or sad story, a journalist rarely gets hit with a double dose of good news, but that was just the case this week during a visit to Happy Hooves, a horse-care unit in Kraaibosch just beyond the Homtini Pass.
Not only did the Knysna-Plett Herald (KPH) see how well the female donkey, now named Suki, who was stabbed 12 times on March 17 is doing, but also received the news that she is expecting.
Suki was rescued by Knysna Animal Welfare Society (KAWS) and Happy Hooves. She was found tied to a tree in Concordia with deep stab wounds on her back that were about a week old, and had been purposefully inflicted with a knife, broken bottle or a panga.
According to Annerie Graham of Happy Hooves, Suki is doing so well that they have made the decision to put her up for adoption.
“She is totally back to normal and has become somewhat of a character around the farm. Somehow she manages to get out of her enclosure, gets into our yard at the house and pokes her head into the kitchen to steal our bread. She knows exactly where I keep it, too,” laughed Graham.
“She is also quite persistent when it comes to feeding time, and can be quite a handful when you don’t give her the food as quickly as she wants it – truly a naughty little donkey when she wants to be,” she added.
According to Graham, it took six weeks in total for Suki to completely heal. “For three weeks we changed the dressing on her wounds twice a day. Luckily she is quite tame, which made it easy,” she said.
What does bother Graham though, is that it seems to her the police has not investigated the matter any further, and that the investigating officer was not aware that the Animal Protection Act was a punishable offence.
“Two weeks after the case was opened I asked how far the investigation had progressed and the investigating officer said he was waiting for the public to come forward with information. He said something to the effect of ‘the donkey is fine now, it’s not like somebody died’. I couldn’t believe it. Eventually I took a copy of the Act to him and explained it to him. I don’t think anything will come of it, though,” she said.
Knysna police spokesperson Sergeant Chris Spies said on Tuesday, May 30 that the investigation into the matter has not yet been concluded.
“All investigations are being dealt with on its own merits based on information and evidence gathered,” he said, adding that feedback regarding this investigation is being provided directly to the complainant by the investigation officer.
The Knysna-Plett Herald reported on March 23 that Graham (of Happy Hooves) said she was at the police station on Monday, March 20, to lay charges of contravening the Animal Protection Act. In response to the aforementioned allegations made by Graham regarding the investigating officer, Spies said these are unfortunate. “We invite the complainant to discuss her concerns with the branch commander of the Knysna detectives.”