Animal cruelty is but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to animals and includes many kinds of mistreatment, from temporarily failing to provide essential care to the malicious killing or repeated torturing of an animal.
The intense public reaction to animal cruelty cases indicates that the public is concerned about the treatment of animals and believes animal cruelty to be a social problem worthy of police or welfare organisations’ attention.
So what is considered as animal cruelty?
Neglect occurs when a pet owner fails to provide the animal with adequate food, water, shelter, or veterinary care. Severely restricting an animal’s movement full-time by tying the animal up or to something, or keeping the animal in a cage is the most common, and most visible, type of neglect. Neglect is the most common type of animal cruelty.
Hoarding is a severe form of neglect in which the owner accumulates an excessive number of pets, and is unable to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter, or veterinary care, and houses the animals in extremely overcrowded conditions. Such neglect results in illness and starvation and may even lead to the death of the animals.
Physical abuse refers to intentional acts that cause the animal pain, suffering, or death. Abusive behaviours include beating, burning, choking or suffocating, dragging, drowning, hanging, kicking or stomping, mutilating, poisoning, shooting, stabbing, and throwing, among others. Abuse also includes sexual contact with animals, particularly contact that causes injury or severe distress – this form of abuse is considered to be a criminal act. Dogs and cats are the most frequent victims of neglect and physical cruelty.
What are the signs that show an animal has been abused or is being treated cruelly? These signs may include the following:
- Animals in poor physical condition (e.g., skinny or emaciated, open sores, dirty, foul odour, excessive head shaking or scratching, excessively matted coat)
- Excessively aggressive animals (e.g., lunging, snarling, snapping, growling)
- Excessively submissive animals (e.g., no eye contact, cowering, shaking, backing away)
- Poor general sanitation (e.g., urine or faeces in the home, no access to clean water or food)
- Exposure to extreme weather without proper shelter
- Insufficient space, lighting, or ventilation for the number of animals present
- Cruel confinement (e.g., short tether, small cage, hot car)
- Lack of necessary medical care (e.g., animal is diseased, injured, or dying)
- Cruel or inappropriate training methods (e.g., suspended with front legs off the floor to punish, weighted down and thrown into water, forced to run alongside car)
- Tight collars or harnesses that are embedded in the animals’ flesh
- Dead animals on the property
The most obvious harm caused by animal cruelty is the pain and suffering endured by the animal. Happy endings in cases of physical cruelty are rare: the abuse is often ghastly and victim animals are rarely returned to good health or adopted by a loving family. Particularly in hoarding cases, severe crowding and a lack of socialization create health and behaviour problems that may leave animals unadoptable and at risk of euthanasia.
Please report animal cruelty directly to your local SPCA.
In case of an emergency, use the local SPCA emergency numbers and not email. This will ensure that the animal is reached sooner. Our mandate is to prevent cruelty, and in a country that spans over a million square kilometres, our Inspectors must place their focus on cases where the Animals Protection Act is being contravened.
The main animal welfare legislations in South Africa are the Animal Protection Act No. 71 of 1962, which prohibits animal cruelty on all domestic and wild animals in captivity or under the control of humans; and the Performing Animals Act 1935, amended in 2016, which requires establishments training animals for exhibitions or performance, or training guard dogs, to be licensed. Furthermore, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), in cooperation with the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA), have enacted a series of animal welfare Standards, which provide further details in relation to certain species of animals.