Melkbos animal shelter faces closure

The City’s decision to shut down an animal shelter on a Melkbosstrand farm is being appealed by its owners.

The City has cited zoning regulations and the Fallen Angels Pet Rescue Centre’s position inside a 5km exclusion zone around the Koeberg nuclear power station as reasons for its decision.

Gayl Basson, co-founder of the shelter for some 400 animals, mostly dogs, said she had been on the farm for the past 14 years ever since she and her family had bought the property.

The organisation had housed and helped hundreds of animals in need of care over the years, she said.

However, in March 2022, the City served the organisation with a compliance notice, and it had to apply for consent to run the rescue centre at the farm.

On Friday November 1, after a two-year legal battle, which Fallen Angels claims has cost it nearly R250 000, the organisation learned that its application for a special consent use permit had been denied and that it would need to vacate the property in 90 days time.

Ms Basson said she had lodged an appeal so that the organisation would be able to remain on the farm until the appeal was finalised, which she believes could take longer than three months.

However, she said their legal team had advised them that their chance of getting the permit was about 5% and it would cost nearly R15 000 in legal fees.

Determined not to give up without a fight, the organisation is appealing to the community and its donors for support.

“We have spent so much money on the legal fees and are slapped with hefty rates bills, with our accounts in arrears, but we are trying to save the farm to house the hundreds of animals,” Ms Basson said.

The organisation planned to move to land near Langebaan or to somewhere beyond the 5km Koeberg exclusion zone, if they failed to get the necessary permit, Ms Basson said, adding that such a scenario came with a heavy financial toll.

Ms Basson said the situation had created a lot of stress for the rescue centre’s staff and volunteers.

The shelter’s predicament has sparked hundreds of comments on Facebook from residents of Milnerton, Table View and surrounds who want Fallen Angels to stay put.

Some said they would write to mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to “make the right decisions”.

Ms Basson said Mr Hill-Lewis had adopted an animal from the organisation sometime last year and that he was passionate about the work it did. However, she said she understood that “he is doing his job”.

Mr Hill-Lewis’s spokesman, Lyndon Kahn, told Tabletalk that the mayor could not comment on the issue as he would be part of the appeal process.

According to the City, the animal shelter is within Koeberg’s Precautionary Action Zone, where no development is permissible other than development that is directly connected to the operating or decommissioning of the nuclear power plant.

The City confirmed that an appeal had been submitted on Thursday November 21, and that the City’s Appeal Authority would decide whether or not the permit is granted, but it could not say when a final decision would be made.

Tabletalk has tried since Wednesday November 20 to get a comment from Koeberg’s communications desk without success. And Daphne Mokwena, at Eskom’s media desk, promised to respond to our emails by 10am on Tuesday November 26, but we did not get a response by the time of publication.

If you would like to help Fallen Angels Pet Rescue Centre or adopt an animal from them, call 076 993 9670.

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