Petition calling for pit bull ban submitted to government

The Sizwe Kupelo Foundation submitted a petition with 135,000 signatures calling for the ban of pit bulls as domestic pets to the government on Wednesday.

However, the foundation said it was forced to submit it electronically as the department of agriculture, land reform & rural development did not confirm a date for physical delivery.

“Though the foundation had wanted to hand over the petition to agriculture, land reform & rural development minister Thoko Didiza in person, patron and founder Dr Sizwe Kupelo submitted it online. This was after weeks of waiting to get a date for the handover from the minister’s office,” said Kupelo.

Didiza has the authority to promulgate new regulations in terms of the Animal Protection Act. Kupelo urged her to ensure the petition, which was started two months ago, was taken to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the cabinet for discussion and the National Assembly for action.

“We want to thank every man and woman who signed the petition. We want to also thank organisations that threw their weight behind the campaign,” he said.

“We want to thank those pit bull owners who handed over their dogs to the SPCA. This shows that South Africans are a caring people as we want to prevent the further slaughter of our children by hopefully putting pressure on the people we elected to take decisive action and ban the wild animals living among people.

“Though we have submitted the petition, we urge people to continue signing it. We can no longer sit back and watch the future generation being slaughtered right before our eyes.”

The department did not respond to queries.

Kupelo said he was overwhelmed by the support from South Africans. “When we made the call, we were not expecting the amount of response — but this just shows that ours was a right call and campaign.

“Now South Africans have spoken and the message is loud and clear: ban pit bulls to prevent more unnecessary deaths. This is what active citizenry is all about.

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“We, the people, have done our part and now the ball is in our government’s court. We hope the voices of the thousands of people will be heard.”

After the death of 10-year-old Storm Nuku, killed by his family’s pit bulls in Gqeberha, Kupelo wrote to police minister Bheki Cele, health minister Dr Joe Phaahla and Didiza requesting an intervention.

Kupelo said he did not know Nuku personally but had to step up because his foundation was established to help the vulnerable.

“South Africans are vulnerable as long as these animals are allowed to live in their homes.”

He has called for the castration of male pit bulls and the sterilisation of female pit bulls. The foundation also wants the “unpredictable dogs'' to be removed from all South African homes.

“The call to ban pit bulls in South Africa comes as other countries — like Russia, Finland, Denmark, the UK, Portugal, parts of Germany, parts of China, parts of Brazil and parts of Australia, among a host of countries — have either banned, put restrictions on ownership of the breed or its importation,” Kupelo said.

“It is time that the government takes decisive steps and imposes a complete ban on the ownership of pit bulls as domestic animals. Such a move would prevent further attacks and unnecessary deaths. We cannot continue sending out messages of condolences for something that can easily be prevented.”

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