Giraffe on Transport Dies After Its Head Smashed into a Bridge

**kellyhound** · #1 ● 08-03-2014, 10:07 AM

(S.A) The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (NSPCA) is considering laying charges against those responsible for the death of a giraffe on Gauteng’s roads this week.

“The likelihood of us pressing charges at this stage is very strong. We have now established who the owner is.

We’re just trying to establish where the animals were coming from and where they were going.

It’s important for us that we do get some eyewitness accounts,” the SPCA’s Rick Allan told.

Gauteng motorists were outraged on Thursday when two giraffes were spotted being transported in a small, open roof container.

One of the animals was killed during the journey. It was killed when it hit its head while the vehicle was passing under a bridge.

The truck transporting the animals also reportedly broke down, leaving the giraffes stranded next to the highway for more than 8 hours.

“We believe the method in which the animal was transported was not correct. The death of the animal could have been avoided,” Allan said.

The SPCA was alerted to the plight of the giraffes by members of the public who witnessed the incident.

The organisation is reportedly planning to lay charges against both the driver of the vehicle and the owner.

The company that transported the giraffe that died in Gauteng this week said the bridge the animal hit its head on was too low.

“We drove safely under 31 bridges at 48km/h. There was no warning that the Garsfontein bridge was unsafe,” marketing officer for Ditjabe Wildlife Services Dirk Boshoff was quoted as saying by Beeld today.

“I’m not here to kill animals. I only transport them.” He said he had driven behind the truck-and-trailer on Thursday that was transporting two giraffes from the Meyersdal Eco Estate in Alberton.

Thinus Botha tweeted that he had been driving behind the truck when the animal struck its head on Garsfontein Bridge.

There was "lots of blood", he tweeted.

NSPCA's manager Rick Allen confirmed that the giraffe had sustained a head injury but said that an autopsy was necessary to determine the cause of death.