The National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) confirmed that the two white Bengal tigers kept as pets on an Impala Park property are adapting well after being relocated to a wildlife facility. The tigers made headlines in 2021 after the owner of a crèche bordering the property, Tanya van Rooyen, spotted one of them and reported it. Van Rooyen’s daughter, Alicia van Heerden, said her mother died last year, but the relocation would have left her overjoyed.
The tigers were moved to the NSPCA-accredited facility in the Free State on February 20. Jacques Peacock, from the NSPCA, previously explained that the Boksburg SPCA proactively and persistently worked with the owner, which led to the NSPCA taking the animals into its care. In a media statement, Peacock said the tigers were “sentenced to a barren, urban enclosure; trapped in a concrete jungle in suburbia, without a speck of grass or a tree in sight. With no freedom to express normal behaviour, the tigers became objects of human gratification