Pets being slaughtered in meat-starved Zimbabwe | NowPublic News Coverage

Pets being slaughtered in meat-starved Zimbabwe

by merrie | September 14, 2007 at 10:52 pm

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Zimbabwa's economic meltdown has led to hyper-inflation and
food-shortages. Mugabe's critics blame corruption and his stewardship
of the economy that has
led to the crisis. Often-violent, government seizures
of thousands of white-owned commercial farms that began in 2000 and
disrupted the agriculture-based economy in what was once a regional
breadbasket.

Zimbabwe's and international human rights groups accuse the government of intimidating, threatening, harassing and physically attacking critics or those seen as casting the government in a bad light.

Sweeping media laws have brought the closure of independent and opposition newspapers, speech and gatherings are tightly controlled, and President Robert Mugabe has applauded police for beating opposition activists.

Animal activists say they have been threatened with arrest for speaking out and SPCA offices were raided by secret police agents of the Central Intelligence Organization on Thursday. SPCA inspectors said they were ordered not to release details of surrendered, abandoned, slain or eaten pets.

No comment was immediately available from the government.