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As another flight carrying Afrikaners prepares to leave South Africa for the US next week, animal shelters have been flooded with calls by “refugees” wanting to surrender their pets.
“I have received at least 20 calls in the past few days — ‘We got our tickets yesterday and we’re leaving on Tuesday and need to give up our three dogs and six cats.’ That kind of thing. It’s cruel,“ said Jacqui Martheze, general manager of Woodrock Animal Rescue in Pretoria, a pro-life shelter that is home to about 500 rescued animals.
“I argue with them and tell them, ‘But you applied for this programme, you knew this was going to happen, why did you wait?’ And they tell me things like they didn’t want to upset their children, who are already going through an upheaval,” she said.
Martheze said Woodrock had accepted seven dogs from “refugees” this week, but was expecting more in the coming days.
Her experience is echoed by shelters and rehoming organisations around the country, which say the short notice families receive before departure leaves little chance of finding new homes for their pets.
The short lead time leads to a crazy situation where we see animals being offered up on social media, taken to shelters or offloaded at SPCAs
— Chantelle Murray
Chantelle Murray, founder and director of Paws R Us, said she believed most shelters or SPCAs have felt the impact.
“The short lead time leads to a crazy situation where we see animals being offered up on social media, taken to shelters or offloaded at SPCAs,” she said.
“I’ve done some research on the issue and the resettlement data outlines a difficult reality for pet owners. There’s zero government assistance offered for the relocation of animals, and then there is a required 90-day wait as families settle into their new housing situation before they can start the process of relocating their pets. And the costs are enormous — between R35,000 and R50,000 per animal,” she said.
About 8,000 South Africans have arrived in the US since May last year as part of the “refugee” programme introduced by the administration of President Donald Trump, who accuses the South African government of discriminating against Afrikaners and presiding over a “white genocide”. The programme is open to all minority groups, including Indians and coloureds.
The initial quota of about 7,500 admissions a year was recently more than doubled to 17,500.
Those accepted as “refugees” fly out on scheduled commercial flights but receive only a few days’ notice of their departure. The US government pays for the flights but requires the cost to be paid back in instalments.
Trix Stathakis of BarkingMad, an online rehoming platform that matches families surrendering pets with prospective adopters, said responsible rehoming takes time.
“The process takes a minimum of three weeks to complete properly,” she said, adding that families given only a few days before departure rarely have enough time. “So on average we are turning away between five and 20 US refugees every week.”
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