Pets Being Eaten in Zimbabwe

This is absolutely gruesome, but most indicative of a country being run into the ground by the Communist thug Robert Mugabe.

Pets Killed for Food in Zimbabwe

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Pets are being slaughtered for meat in shortage-stricken Zimbabwe and record numbers of animals have been surrendered to shelters or abandoned by owners no longer able to feed them, animal welfare activists say.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it could not feed surrendered animals or find them new homes and was being forced to kill them and destroy the corpses.

Animals, like people, are being hard hit by Zimbabwe's economic meltdown, with official inflation of more than 7,600 percent, the highest in the world. Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it will reach 100,000 percent by the end of the year.

Vets have run out of the drug used to put down the animals and are relying on intermittent donations from neighboring South Africa. One veterinary practice was waiting for supplies to destroy about 20 animals, and on Friday could neither feed them adequately nor fatally inject them.

In its latest bulletin to donors and supporters, the SPCA said it launched an awareness campaign on "the ethical and moral issues regarding the killing and consumption of trusted companion animals."

"But in the face of starvation and the burgeoning number of stray and abandoned animals, the moral issues become far more complex and we should not be too hasty in our condemnations when animals and people are suffering equally," it said.

One animal rights activist, who asked not to be named out of fear of arrest, called the situation "too ghastly for words.

"We are accused of giving the country a bad name," the activist said.

Zimbabwean and international human rights groups accuse the government of intimidating, threatening, harassing and physically attacking critics or those seen as casting the government in a bad light. Sweeping media laws have brought the closure of independent and opposition newspapers, speech and gatherings are tightly controlled, and President Robert Mugabe has applauded police for beating opposition activists.

Where are all the leftwing activists calling for intervention?