SPCA workers had their hands full as they tried to capture a “street smart” Nguni bull on the R300 in Mitchells Plain.
|||Cape Town - As if traffic hasn’t been bad enough, an escaped Nguni bull was rescued from an off-ramp off the R300 in Mitchells Plain on Tuesday. The bull had been grazing next to the highway since Saturday, but had been evading capture.
Despite grazing only 2m from the busy road, the bull did not step into the road or interfere with cars.
“I think this bull is street smart,” said Mark Levendal, an inspector-in-training for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).
“He wanted to graze on greener pastures, but managed not to cause any havoc.”
Levendal said it was common for herding animals to stray from home to find better places to graze. Many of these animals came from informal settlements, he said, and had little space to feed.
Seven SPCA employees went to the highway turn-off to herd the bull into a trailer and take it back to the SPCA’s grounds. To get the increasingly aggressive bull to move and prevent it from escaping, the inspectors formed a “cattle run”.
“He’s got a lot of spirit in him,” said Romayne Midgley, a farmyard manager at SPCA.
The bull must be claimed by its owner in the next 30 days. After that, it will be sterilised and offered for adoption.
madeleine.may@inl.co.za
Cape Times