Snare hunt organised after cats go missing

A group of Beverley Grove residents spent two hours on Saturday scouring their section of the Baakens River Valley for snares, prompted by the disappearance of three cats in the past fortnight.

The Beverley Grove Unite snare hunt was organised by twin sisters Leigh and Lisa Claasen, 29, and the aim was to cover a section of a Baakens tributary below Collindale Road.

Leigh, a trained game field guide, said yesterday the cats were all home-bound animals and it was unlikely they would have gone missing unless they had been trapped, snatched or killed by hunting dogs.

“One of our members recently found a snare in the area and a couple of days ago hunting dogs ran through another member’s garden.

“So we were prepared to find more snares or even a carcass, which would have helped bring closure for the owners of the cats.”

The bush was thick and the weather was sweltering but they combed the area from the back of Balmoral Estate through to Theodore Place, she said.

“In the end, we only found one snare but we found a path where dogs had clearly been, judging from the spoor.”

The disappearance of the cats was still a mystery but they had pinpointed another valley problem, she said.

“As we got closer to Walker Drive there was more litter and we’re aiming to go back to focus just on that and clean it up.”

HeraldLIVE