WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-06-23 Time: 15:00:04 Posted By: Jan
By Eve Vosloo
An elderly Sea Point woman says the SPCA intimidated her into signing over one of her dogs, then put it down because its paws were matted and it had an eye infection.
But the animal welfare organisation denies any coercion, saying Rhona Bailen was an “animal hoarder” who had too many dogs to look after properly and that she had herself said the dog should be put to sleep rather than treated and re-homed.
The dog, a Yorkshire Terrier called Babelas, was 13 years old.
Bailen, a septuagenarian, says because of a recent injury she could not walk properly and had fallen behind in her normal care of her house and 15 dogs, all small breeds.
She said she suffered from a heart condition and the loss of her dog had been devastating. She was crying constantly and could not eat or sleep since Babelas been put down.
SPCA inspector Conchita Milburn, who removed Babelas from the property, said Bailen’s dogs were not in good condition. Some were overweight and they were frustrated due to lack of exercise. Because there were so many, they had formed a pack and the smaller dogs were picked on by the bigger ones. One elderly Maltese was almost crippled by arthritis.
Bailen responded that her groomer, who comes to her house and works on two dogs at a time, was due to visit several times next month and would have rectified Babelas’s paws. Bailen was able to walk and drive again, and would have taken the dog to the vet to have its eyes treated.
On the exercise issue, Bailen said she had fallen behind because she had been incapacitated and ill.
However, Milburn said the matting under Babelas’s paws was long-standing. The dog’s claws were already growing through the matted hair and it was partially blind.
Milburn said she had issued a written health warning on June 9 over the unhygienic conditions in Bailen’s house.
Bailen said she had fired her char and was in the process of hiring a new one. She normally kept her house clean.
Milburn said neighbours in a block of flats had also complained about Bailen’s dogs barking.
Bailen said her house was on the market and she planned to move to a smaller one with a bigger garden for the dogs when it was sold.
Milburn said she was sympathetic to Bailen’s situation and that of other elderly people who could not care for large numbers of pets. She planned to visit her with a counsellor who dealt with “animal hoarders”. She hoped Bailen could be persuaded that it was not in her interests, or those of the animals, for her to have so many dogs. This was also a violation of municipal by-laws.
Bailen said she would not get any more dogs but was not prepared to hand over any more animals to the SPCA.
She planned to have her lawyer present when Milburn visited and was changing her will in which she had left money to the SPCA.