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20091203

Squatters eat dumped pet-carcasses; medical waste-dump discovered

 

Plakkers eet dierkarkasse

    Picture by Jennifer Bruce of The Star: Due to a lack of funding and resources the Animal Welfare Society in Randfontein – overwhelmed by feral pets -- has started dumping its animal carcasses on the local waste-dump – and  hungry squatters and feral dog-packs eat from the often diseased animals. And if you think that’s gruesome – tons of dumped hospital waste, including human body parts and foetuses, were also discovered on a farm in Welkom and at the public agricultural showgrounds in that town, as well as at a brick yard. view more pictures

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    Daniëlla du Plooy reports in Beeld that the national council for animal welcome confirmed that a ‘storm has broken over our heads’ after revelations by the Star newspaper that hundreds of carcasses of diseased and rounded-up pets and lifestock were being dumped at the Randfontein waste dump. Gruesome pictures of the carcasses were published – yet it’s not a new problem, said Mrs Bernice Dyer, spokeswoman for the Animal Welfare Society.

    “We have always tried to treat animals with respect even when they are dead. The fact is that we don’t have a choice any longer.” Only one of its 88 associations have cremation facilities for the animals – and all the others are forced to work with the municipal waste-departments, which undertake to bury the carcasses for them. “Alas in Randfontein, where we had such an agreement, the holes aren’t always dug for the animals to be dumped into,’ she said.

    “We have such an overwhelming number of live animals in our cages to look after, that we don’t have the manpower or the resources to attend to the dead animals properly any longer,’ she said.

    Randfontein also dumps waste from local abattoirs at the site, she pointed at, so it wasn’t only their animals which were dumped there. Beeld also saw a lot of medical waste at the site – but Mrs Dyer said they did not dump any medical waste. A randfontein spokesman for the council said they were building a wall arund the dump – and acknowledged that they usually didn’t know exactly what was being dumped there. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/e610fe4b3e8349409f8057ab4cb60bd7/03-12-2009-01-02/Plakkers_eet_dierkarkasse

    Dog carcas Randfontein municipal Rubbish dump pic Jennifer Bruce The Star

    Pictures of the dumped animals were taken by Jennifer Bruce of The Star newspaper. view more pictures

    Meanwhile, The Star also reports that the government’s environmental task team, The Green Scorpions, have found another two sites of buried medical waste in the Welkom area in the Free State. They were found buried on the Jonkerus Farm, 25km outside the town, and on the Welkom Showgrounds, said chief director for regulatory services in the environmental affairs department, also known as the Green Scorpions, Sonnyboy Bapela. "It's a crime scene now."

    • Each waste site was about 10m wide. The site on the Showgrounds was at least two metres deep. Investigators have so far found syringes, scalpels, used bandages, discarded medications as well as amputated limbs, placentas and foetuses. In a statement the Department of Environmental Affairs warned that the waste "poses a health and bio-hazard risk to the people that may come into contact with it, as well as a risk that significant harm may be caused to the environment."

    Further excavation was made impossible due to windy conditions. "Because of the wind, the medical waste started to fly around." Investigators have re-buried the waste until a suitable solution for disposal, either a certified landfill or incinerator, could be found. "It will not be wise to leave it open." Bapela said the owners of the properties would be served with legal notices before the waste could be moved. Bapela said he could not yet identify who was responsible for dumping the waste illegally.

    • "We still have to identify the owner who brought the waste there. The improper dumping of medical waste can result in criminal charges. This includes a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, a fine of R10-million or both, according to the department.

    Bapela said the information on the new sites came from journalists who had interviewed Gavin Brasher, owner of Maximus Bricks, where the first illegal medical waste site was found on Friday. "The owner of the brickyard indicated other sites where waste is buried," said Bapela.

    • The Sunday Times also reported earlier that 300 tons of medical waste had been found on Brasher's property. It had been dumped there illegally by South Africa's second-largest waste management company, Wasteman. It included bandages, body parts and used syringes.

    The departments said investigators had searched Wasteman's headquarters in Johannesburg, as well as a company incinerator in Klerksdorp and a treatment facility in Durban.

    • According to the Times, the Wasteman Group and its BEE-affiliate Phambili Wasteman had multi-million-rand contracts with over 150 private and government hospitals and clinics.

    Meanwhile Wasteman's chief executive Vincent Charnley temporarily quit as head of the Institute of Waste Management for Southern Africa. On Monday his company was suspended from the organisation.

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