The pain of starvation is horrific. It is a prolonged suffering where death comes slowly with a myriad of painful symptoms throughout each stage of physical deterioration.
Starvation is terrible, but to be starved out of apathy is morally abhorrent. For 169 horses at the army unit in South Africa, the nightmare of starvation was only too real.
Sign the petition to demand the people responsible for this crime against living creatures are brought to justice.
An initial loss of body fat is followed by muscle loss and atrophy and, ultimately, organ failure. In long-term starvation, degeneration of the liver, cardiac changes, anaemia, and skin lesions may develop. The brain, which relies on chemical signals to function properly, begins to deteriorate, along with the heart and other muscles. A coma follows soon after, and then death.
The horses had no food, and had nothing to eat except soil and their own faeces. Food was only provided to the horses after the NSPCA forced the army unit into taking emergency action to secure adequate feed for the animals.
Starvation wreaks havoc on an animal, and to put an animal through something that terrible is unquestionably evil, especially when you have the means to feed them, but just decide not to. Such was the state of these horses that twenty-five had to be euthanised, the others healthy enough to be relocated to another facility.
The NSPCA said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the SANDF in 2016 regarding the care of animals, but that the army had continually reneged on the agreement, showing that they are incapable of looking after animals, and should not be entrusted with any.
General Solly Zacharia Shoke, the men under your command have shown they are incapable of looking after animals, and despite an agreement with the NSPCA your men have consistently failed to provide adequate care for these horses. Now twenty-five are dead, and the others will never be the same.
We demand criminal charges be brought against those responsible. This is cruelty at its worst and we will not allow this to go unpunished. Sign this petition with me and let's make sure this cruelty does not go unnoticed or unpunished.
