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Animal rights activists express outrage over R3.4m tender awarded

Animals rights activists across the city have expressed outrage over a service provider that won a tender for the collection, loading, transport and disposal of animal carcasses.

The R3 450 000 tender was awarded by the City to Njongo Holdings (Pty) Ltd trading as Khulisa Ulutsha in August and they will allegedly not scan deceased pets for a microchip to contact the deceased animal's owners.

The animal lovers argue that this would not bring closure for the once loved and wanted pets and their owners. Animal rights activist Ellen Fedele said an investigation was needed to be conducted into the awarding of the tender.

“This is unacceptable. We have such a dearth of compassion in life, especially now during Covid-19. As an animal owner I would want to say goodbye in the way I choose fit, not have that choice taken away from me because a company could not be bothered to use some of the millions they gained through a tender to buy scanners to scan for a chip and do the right thing by alerting the deceased pet's owners.

“Why change companies now? Why did the council decide to terminate the previous company's contract? The new company is not listed on Google and doesn't even have a website. That is very suspicious to me,” she said

Concerned resident Claire Shadbolt said the outgoing company was providing these services and had posted on their social media which assisted in matching a deceased pet with the owner even when it wasn't micro chipped.

“The new tender winners seem to know nothing about microchip or scanners, that such things exist, and they were definitely not requested by the City to have them as part of the job. Even if the animal had a collar and tag I think they wouldn't even want to use a smidgen of airtime to phone the owner,” said Shadbolt.

City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said the contractor complied with the required tender specifications. He said a requirement to scan carcasses for microchips and notify owners of the animals has not historically been included in contracts with companies providing this service.

“We agree that this deserves further consideration to give pet owners peace of mind and we will look at the affordability of such a service for future contracts once the current one has run its course (about 36 months from now). It must be noted the previous contract did not have such requirements,” he said.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Animal rights activists express outrage over R3.4m tender awarded

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