Petition launched to stop illegal slaughter of horses
A PETITION to get the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to stop the illegal slaughter of horses is being circulated online following the death of a Greenbushes pony.
A furore erupted last week after a pony, named Lofty, was taken from a Greenbushes smallholding and allegedly butchered in Kragga Kamma.
The pony was reported missing on Tuesday last week amid allegations that he had been illegally sold to a slaughterhouse.
Port Elizabeth horse owner Lauren Try started the petition on Friday. It has since been signed 216 times.
The petition urges the municipality to stop the illegal sale of horses and close the slaughterhouses which purchase them.
Try said she was trying to get as many signatures as possible before handing the petition over to Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip.
“I know the owner of the pony which was slaughtered and I was prompted to draw up a petition,” she said.
Greenbushes resident Rose Con- nell, 68, said Lofty had been given to her in 2012.
She said a neighbour had offered her the use of his land for grazing for her livestock.
The man who herded the animals back onto her property had not noticed that Lofty was not with them.
Lofty’s disappearance was posted on Facebook and Connell received a message last Wednesday saying the pony had been spotted in Kragga Kamma.
Police spokesman Captain Sandra Janse Rensburg said a case of stock theft was being investigated.