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.
Source: TimesLive