SAPS Dog Sky: NSPCA To Lay Cruelty Charges Against Officials

The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) will open a docket for contraventions of the Animals Protection Act 71 of 1962 against officials in the South African Police Service (SAPS), following the death of Sky, a police dog who was euthanised in September after being found severely injured in her kennel. The charge follows an NSPCA investigation which found that Sky’s ability to cope with her environment did not improve over a period of six months before her death.

Sky was a five-year-old Belgian Malinois who worked for SAPS as an arson detection dog. On the morning of 7 September 2026, she was found lying in her kennel at the SAPS Veterinary Hospital in Roodeplaat, Pretoria, covered in blood and seriously injured. She was taken to the Onderstepoort Veterinary Academic Hospital for emergency treatment. Her condition deteriorated despite treatment, and she was humanely euthanised on 9 September 2026.

The NSPCA’s Special Projects Unit inspected the facility, met with SAPS twice, and reviewed Sky’s veterinary records, her treatment history, and the post-mortem report. The investigation found evidence that Sky was kept in conditions that caused her unnecessary suffering, despite SAPS’s own records documenting the risk to her.

Those records trace Sky’s distress back to March 2026. That month, she was treated for wounds to her face and legs and for teeth torn from her jaw. She had a reported history of escaping her kennel.  While hospitalised, she repeatedly tried to escape and injured herself again. She was diagnosed with severe kennel stress and separation anxiety and given medication. She was then confined to a small indoor kennel with additional reinforcements to secure the door. In August 2026, her records concluded that she had a poor prognosis within the SAPS environment. She remained in that environment until she was found injured weeks later.

The post-mortem found that the injuries to both of Sky’s front legs were accompanied by widespread muscle damage consistent with a prolonged period of physical exertion during a traumatic event. Her condition would likely have been fatal without euthanasia. It also found older stitched wounds, tooth wear inconsistent with her age, and changes to her adrenal glands, indicative of chronic stress. Taken with her records, these findings point to sustained distress rather than a single incident.

“Sky was a working dog for SAPS. When she could no longer work, her records directed that she be disposed of as an asset of the SAPS through a supply chain process. Whatever that process was meant to lead to, she remained in a kennel environment that her records linked to her stress. Sky was a sentient being, and no working animal should ever be treated as an asset,” said Senior Inspector de Klerk, manager of the NSPCA’s Special Projects Unit.

Dogs and horses work in law enforcement and private security across the country. The Animals Protection Act protects them in the same way as any other animal, and the people responsible for them have a legal duty of care for the whole of the animal’s life, including after the animal can no longer work.  Sky’s case raises a question that reaches well beyond one kennel: what happens to these animals when their working lives end? The NSPCA calls on SAPS, and on every organisation that relies on working animals, to plan retirement, rehoming and end-of-life decisions around the animal’s welfare rather than treat them as a supply chain matter.

The NSPCA, whose Inspectors enforce the Animals Protection Act nationally, will continue to monitor the welfare of working animals and will follow this matter through the criminal justice process.

If you see a working animal whose care concerns you, please report it to the NSPCA on 011 907 3590 or email nspca@nspca.co.za.