‘No working animal should ever be treated as an asset’: NSPCA lays charges against Saps officers for animal cruelty
· Citizen
The National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) says it will open a case against South African Police Service (Saps) officials for contraventions of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962 following the death of Sky.
Sky was a five-year-old female Belgian Malinois arson detection dog who was euthanised in September after being found severely injured in her kennel.
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Detrimental environments
The case follows an NSPCA investigation that found that Sky’s ability to cope with her environment did not improve over a period of six months before her death.
On the morning of 7 September 2026, she was found lying in her kennel at the Saps Veterinary Hospital in Roodeplaat, Pretoria, covered in blood and seriously injured.
She was then taken to the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital for emergency treatment, where her condition worsened despite treatment, which ultimately led to her being humanely euthanised on 9 September 2026.
Unnecessary suffering
The NSPCA’s Special Projects Unit conducted inspections at the facility and met with Saps twice.
The unit also reviewed Sky’s veterinary records, her treatment history, and the post-mortem report.
Following investigations, the NSPCA said that Sky was kept in conditions that caused her unnecessary suffering, despite Saps’ own records documenting the risk to her.
Fatal wounds
According to the NSPCA, those records trace back to March 2026, when she was treated for wounds to her face and legs, as well as teeth that had been torn from her jaw.
Sky also has a reported history of escaping her kennel, and while hospitalised, she repeatedly tried to escape and injured herself again.
Severe kennel stress
In August 2026, her records stated that she had a poor medical outcome within the Saps environment.
She was diagnosed with severe kennel stress and separation anxiety, was given medication and was then confined to a small indoor kennel with additional reinforcements to secure the door.
Sky remained in these conditions until she was found injured weeks later.
Post-mortem report
The post-mortem found that injuries to both of Sky’s front legs were accompanied by widespread muscle damage consistent with a prolonged period of physical exertion during a traumatic event.
According to the NSPCA, her condition would likely have been fatal without euthanasia.
The report also found older stitched wounds, tooth wear inconsistent with her age, and changes to her adrenal glands, indicative of chronic stress.
‘Sustained distress’
Based on her records, the NSPCA said these findings pointed to sustained distress rather than a single incident.
Senior Inspector and manager of the NSPCA’s Special Projects Unit, Arno de Klerk, said that Sky’s records directed that she be disposed of as an asset of the Saps through a supply chain process.
“Whatever that process was meant to lead to, she remained in a kennel environment that her records linked to her stress. Sky was a sentient being, and no working animal should ever be treated as an asset,” said De Klerk.
‘Animals are not a supply chain matter’
Dogs and horses work in law enforcement and private security across South Africa, and the Animals Protection Act protects them like any other animal; the people responsible have a legal duty of care for an animal’s whole life, including after it can no longer work.
The NSPCA says that Sky’s case raises a question that reaches well beyond the kennel: what happens to these animals when their working lives end?
It also calls on Saps and every organisation that relies on working animals to plan retirement, rehoming, and end-of-life decisions around the animals’ welfare, rather than treating them as a supply chain matter.