Man who shared seal abuse video has his four dogs killed one by one

It was a gruesome video that had animal lovers locally and abroad up in arms when it was shared on social media.

In June, the post by Abrie Bester from Velddrif on the Cape West Coast showed two men severely abusing a seal cub. The animal was tossed around, stabbed in the face and banged against the side of a fishing boat as the men laughed and egged each other on.

Two weeks before the suspects, aged 19 and 22, were due to appear in the magistrate’s court in Velddrif on 17 September on charges of animal abuse and contravening marine life and environmental legislation, Abrie’s four dogs were killed. Police have confirmed that he’s laid a charge in connection with dogs’s death after his home was burgled.

Abrie, who works in the construction industry, says he heard the two men boasting in a local pub earlier this year about what they’d done to the seal cub.

The video was allegedly taken in December last year.

The seal killed in the incident was a rare species, Abrie explains.

He says three of his dogs – four-month-old sheep dog Satie, four-month-old Jack Russell Noodle, and a five-month-old sheep dog Lulu, who was blind – have been poisoned on his property one after the other. He says the dogs had similar symptoms: one day they were healthy and bouncy, and the next day they had difficulty walking and refused food and water.

“The next thing they started bleeding all over the place, and then they died,” Abrie said sadly.

But there was more to come. On Thursday last week the family’s gentle eight-year-old Belgian sheep dog Wollie, was found dead in Voortrekker Street, Velddrif. She’d been tortured and her heart had been cut out. It was lying in the road next to where the dog was found.

“It was horrifying for me, my wife and especially my eight-year-old daughter. We brought Wollie from Kathu [Northern Cape] when she was three years old. She and my daughter shared a close bond.”

When Wollie had her first litter five months ago, Abrie kept one of the puppies – the blind dog they’d name Lulu, which Abrie believes was also poisoned.

He says two men broke into his house on Thursday while he was at work.

The Swartland & West Coast SPCA has offered an R8 000 reward to anyone with information about dogs’ death.