Red flag raised as more dead non-aquatic animals mysteriously wash ashore on Cape Town’s beaches

After a number of dead animals – mostly being non-aquatic – had washed ashore on various beaches across the Cape Town, the mystery is leading to ‘animal trafficking’.

Surfer, Alex Aitkenhead was the first to raise the alarm after coming across a washed up ‘aardvark’ (ant bear) on Sunset Beach in Milnerton earlier this month.

A dead chicken was found on Bloubergstrand beach yesterday.

PHOTO: Debi Sunderland

Widely circulated photos of a washed up porcupine, a turtle tied with a rope to its shell and the recent being a dead chicken found with both its feet bound with plastic, sparked outry from the public.

A porcupine washed shore last week in Melkbosstrand.

PHOTO: Cornelia Jansen

PICS | ‘It was weird to see’: Dead porcupine found at Cape Town’s Melbosstrand beach

The Cape of Goodhope SPCA told TygerBurger that the ‘aardvark’ was already dead by the time it went into the water, either having been dumped overboard a ship close to shore or was somehow put into the sea from land.

Surfer, Alex Aitkenhead came across an aardvark on Sunset Beach.

PHOTO: Alex Aitkenhead

Beachgoers are speculating that the dead animals found on the shore are linked to rituals.

READ | ‘Keep distance from sea animals’: Seal attacks linked to Domoic acid poisoning

Read the full story in the next edition of TygerBurger on Wednesday 1 February.