ANIMAL welfare activists have expressed their outrage after a Chinese national, accused of cruelly killing at least three dogs, was let off with nothing more than an official police warning.

The Chinese man was taken into police custody last weekend after investigations by the Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe (VAWZ) group found he had killed the dogs for meat. Another Chinese man was questioned in connection with the incident. But no official charges were laid, despite evidence of the cruelty the animals had suffered.

Local residents in West Nicholson outside Gwanda town in Matabeleland South had raised the alarm weeks ago, after three Chinese engineers, hired to install transmitters in the area, were said to be buying dogs for $10 each, then killing and eating them. Dog meat is considered a delicacy by some Chinese nationals, who brutally kill the animals so that they die slowly, to flavour the meat with adrenalin and other hormones.

VAWZ inspector Meryl Harrison told SW Radio Africa on Monday that a team travelled to the town to investigate the claims, and found evidence of dog killings at the Chinese nationals’ camp.

"On investigation inspectors found the wire in a tree, a pool of dried blood underneath the tree, several pieces of dried dog meat hanging up and, some distance away, a dog's paw and tail," she said, explaining how the dogs are usually tied by their necks to trees and slowly beaten until they die.

Harrison said a fourth dog was to be killed the following day, but was rescued. A report was made to the police, leading to the arrest of two Chinese men, although a third man had relocated to Mutare. Only one man admitted to killing the animals, and the VAWZ team tried to have animal cruelty charges laid against him for the suffering the animals were put through.

VAWZ supplied the police with a copy of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Harrison said that the man should have been charged under sections 3(i)(d) that criminalises any action that "causes any unnecessary suffering and 3 (i)(g) which deals with a person who "cruelly causes or permits any animal to be tied up or confined".

Harrison expressed anger that the Chinese national was released on a warning, despite promises by the police that the matter was ‘serious’. She explained that the police were struggling to find grounds to prosecute the Chinese man, saying there is no legislation on the slaughter of dogs.

“Fine this is true, but we wanted this man charged on the grounds of the suffering the dogs underwent,” Harrison said. “We are horrified he was let off with a warning, because we were hoping this would send a strong message to stop this happening.” - SW Radio Africa