All this would have taken is a tiny bit of research. And by research, I don’t even mean massive surveys and gathering of historical materials. They only needed to ask two people. Because after asking two people who live in Alexandra, the City of Joburg would have realised that it was a disastrous idea.

We had a discussion about it in the office last week. A friend of mine even posted about the owls on Facebook yesterday.

“So folks in Alex are decapitating the owls brought in to kill the rat infestation. Who didn’t see that happening? Owls are bad luck or a sign of imminent death in some cultures. Research people!”

Owl Rescue has had to step in, and a case of animal cruelty has been opened with the NSPCA. The owls are being killed and  decapitated. One group of school kids even cut off an owls legs. God, people are horrific.

Brendan Murray, from Owl Rescue, has anther idea, and is trying to talk the council into stopping the owl-experiment.

“We have spoken to the town council about this. We are saying rather use the R2.5 million to employ people to catch the rats. You can employ 100 people to catch them with traps, just find another way. The owls are not viable at all.”

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