Humane solutions needed for 'starving wildebeest on military base': NSPCA

The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) has threatened the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) and its ministry with legal action for failing to act on “overstocked animals in substandard conditions” at a base in the Free State.

The NSPCA has issued a warning regarding what it describes as a severe animal welfare concern involving wildebeest at the SANDF's Barney Molojoane School of Engineers in Kroonstad. 

It estimates there are between 300 and 400 wildebeest on overgrazed land, without supplementary fodder and inadequate access to water troughs.

While it is unclear how hundreds of wild animals ended up on only 200ha of land at the base, the NSPCA accuses the military of not having a plan for redress despite the alarm being sounded.

“During our first inspection on August 11 2023, the NSPCA found nine dead animals and one dying, very little water and no supplementary feed.”

The land was already so over-grazed that extra feed was needed.

The council said it wrote to the chief of the SANDF in August and repeated letters since then, until May, warning about contravention of the Animal Protection Act. It said these were not responded to.

Despite another site visit to the base in October, where translocation of some of the animals and other interventions were discussed with officers, the NSPCA said the situation had not improved. 

“Problems will undoubtedly arise during the winter when the need for food will become even more dire.”

The council is demanding:

• the provision of a “clear, simple and decisive plan without bureaucratic impediments” to resolve the stocking density with urgency;
• funding for this; and
• the provision of supplementary feed and continuous sources of water in the interim.

The organisation has requested its demands be addressed within seven days. 

“Should the DOD [department of defence] and SANDF fail, [or] refuse, to [act on the demands], the NSPCA shall have no alternative than to take stringent legal action in this matter.”

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