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Another suspected has been arrested for allegedly killing a Cape fur seal on a beach close to Strandfontein Pavilion in Cape Town on Thursday, 6 July.
The City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement Marine and Environmental unit said they received a tip-off about a man harvesting meat from a seal while on patrol.
Also read: Six Cape fur seals with stab wounds wash ashore on Long Beach
According to the tip-off, the suspect was harvesting the seal on the beach along Baden Powell Drive near the Strandfontein Pavilion.
When law enforcement officers arrived at the scene, the Cape fure seal had just been cut up.
‘The suspect was arrested and charged under the National Management Biodiversity Act (NEMBA) for being in possession of an animal on the Threatened or Protected Species (TOPS) list,’ said law enforcement spokesperson, Wayne Dyason.
‘The suspect also confirmed there is a thriving black market for the seal meat,’ added Dyason.
This is the second incident involving Cape fur seals in Cape Town this year.
The bodies of six Cape fur seals, all with stab wounds, washed ashore on Kommetjie’s Long Beach earlier in June. X-rays and postmortems performed by Sea Search and a wildlife forensics team confirmed that all six seals were stabbed, most likely while at sea, drowned and washed ashore at Kommetjie’s Long Beach as a result of the trauma sustained from the stabbing.
In January, four suspects were arrested for stoning a Cape fur seal to death at Monwabisi Beach in Khayelitsha. The animal suffered severe facial and skull fractures and had to be euthanised as a result.
During their arrest, one of the suspects said they were approached by a traditional healer to kill the seal for R3 000.
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Picture: Supplied