Cape Town - Local homeless man, Selwyn Taylor, was arrested after he was found to be using puppies to beg for money from residents in the Cape Town CBD.
According to the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, Taylor is a repeat offender and has been charged with obstruction, common assault and infringements of the City of Cape Town Animal Keeping by-law.
The local animal shelter was alerted of this after a series of complaints from residents in the area. Upon investigating, the shelter found that Taylor previously had some of his dogs removed from him before being found with the dogs on a blistering hot day without water.
The shelter says that in the incident leading up to the arrest, Taylor was in possession of a half breed puppy on Sunday. When approached by SPCA’s chief inspector, Jaco Pieterse, and Mayco member for Urban Mobility, Rob Quintas, Taylor reportedly became physically aggressive.
“Mr Taylor resorted to physical violence and physically assaulted the MMC (Rob Quintas). In the process, Mr Taylor also strangled the puppy. The chief inspector tried to restrain Mr Taylor to stop him from assaulting the MMC and stop him from strangling the puppy,” Cape of Good Hope SPCA said in their report.
Taylor was then restrained, arrested and taken to the city’s central police station by the City of Cape Town Traffic Service, who witnessed the scuffle. Taylor made his first appearance in court yesterday, February 8.
The shelter says that the puppy is now in a safe environment, and is looking for a good family to adopt the puppy, now affectionately known as Walter.
IOL