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RITUALISTIC MUTILATION AS PART OF PREDATORY THEFT OF LIVESTOCK IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA

RITUALISTIC MUTILATION AS PART OF PREDATORY THEFT OF LIVESTOCK IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA. Johan Prinsloo. A threat to food security. The extent of theft of livestock in SA and the financial impact and consequences thereof is of great concern.

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RITUALISTIC MUTILATION AS PART OF PREDATORY THEFT OF LIVESTOCK IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA

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  1. RITUALISTIC MUTILATION AS PART OF PREDATORY THEFT OF LIVESTOCK IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA Johan Prinsloo

  2. A threat to food security • The extent of theft of livestock in SA and the financial impact and consequences thereof is of great concern. • It has the potential to cripple the sustainable livelihood of especially emerging farmers. • Example: Mr. Sarel Cilliers, lost his 362-hectare farm in Jachfontein after losing nearly R1 million in cattle and about 160 sheep to stock theft in one year.

  3. Many stock thieves act with callousness and greed Thirty two (32) heavily pregnant cows that were due to calve within a week were stolen in the Free State and slaughtered at an abattoir in KZN

  4. Bizarre violence • What is quite alarming is the bizarre ritualistic acts of violence perpetrated in some instances against live stock. • Animals are killed with sadistic brutality and mutilated. • Although not unknown in South Africa this form of violence is under researched.

  5. Literature • Torture and mutilation of pets • “Horse ripping” • Alien activity • Cult activity – harvesting of blood, organs, unborn calves from cattle to use in rituals • If “victim” is alive during mutilation, the muthi is supposedly more powerful.

  6. Suspected muthi harvesting

  7. Modus operandi • Muthi related activities are not the main course of these mutilations. • Crime scenes look like battlefields littered with mutilated carcasses. • Live stock are hacked with machetes and mostly only shoulders and legs are removed from several animals – some ante mortem causing animals to suffer a long and excruciating death.

  8. Machetes left on crime scenes

  9. A cow hacked while alive

  10. Crippled (hamstrung) cow Fatal injury; animal unable to move, animal suffers extreme pain and is suggestive of a higher degree of intentional, premeditated violence.

  11. Signature crimes • Behaviours going beyond what is necessary to commit the crime • Behaviour as “expressions” referred to as a signature • A similar signature connects a series of crimes (fixed patterns of behaviour)

  12. Example 1 • Armed stock thieves mutilated 37 cows with machetes on a farm in Kokstad, cutting their hamstring tendons and tails, and causing serious wounds to their udders, legs, ears and heads. • Eight cattle were fatally wounded and had to be euthanised. • The farmer’s hay bales were also set alight.

  13. Example 2 • Twenty-five stolen cattle of which five were calves, were found lying in tall grass in Lawley, near Lenasia with their legs slashed with machetes above their knees. The cattle were unable to walk and had to be euthanised. • The owner of the cattle questioned whether he should continue with his agricultural enterprise "The suffering these cows must go through - it's not worth it."

  14. Example 3 Similar tactics occurred in 2002 in Zimbabwe during the violent seizures of farms by mobs during which The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) appealed to the public to help protect Zimbabwe's animals from "unspeakable atrocities", such as cattle being slashed in the back with axes, being perpetrated against them “as acts of recrimination.”

  15. Predators • Despite the differences of their actual crimes, the though processes of predators remain similar: • Lack of remorse • Inflated sense of entitlement • Don’t accept blame for their actions • Actions are claimed to be the fault of other people or outside influences

  16. Intentional Animal Torture and Cruelty (IATC) • Studies have shown that individuals guilty of animal cruelty are more likely to do so to humans. • IATC is one of the warning signs of certain psychopathologies, especially antisocial personality disorder (APD). • Histories of animal cruelty and APD show a significantly higher prevalence of poly-substance abuse.

  17. Core features of APD • Aggressive behaviour and disregard for social norms. • A stimulation-seeking antisocial drive. • Impaired moral development. • Extroversion and failure to learn from experience. • A reduced capacity to experience fear.

  18. Intentional Animal Torture and Cruelty (IATC) • In some circumstances, IATC is used to coerce, control and intimidate women and/or children to be silent about domestic abuse within the home. • It is believed that a similar motive is behind these acts of mutilation and aimed against land owners.

  19. Symbolism of violence • The symbolic display of violence is equally, if not more, important in understanding the rituals of violence. • The symbolic aspect of violence is at the same time its strategic aspect.

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