Across South Africa, a substance known as aldicarb is being used by skelms to poison dogs, which allows robbers to access a property without interference.
This is according to Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, director at the Griffon Poison Information Centre.
“Over 30 dogs were killed in Jeffreys Bay, 42 dogs in Sandton, 30 dogs in Roodepoort and more than 40 in Port Elizabeth,” he said.
Verdoorn said that syndicates often make use of the substance for dogs, as it kills them in just a few minutes.
Verdoorn performs investigations into pesticide-related illegal activities, human, animal and environmental poisoning.
“It’s believed that this pesticide is smuggled in from Zimbabwe and then sold by small local vendors in townships. The substance is initially made in China and is currently illegal to be sold in South Africa.”
Animal Welfare Society spokesperson Allan Perrins said: “We would suspect that the criminals lace food with the poison Aldicarb almost has the same effect as rat poison, but works much faster.”
Verdoorn said poison was usually placed in Viennas, Russians or mince and fed to the dogs.
Cape Argus