NATIONAL NEWS - MOSSEL BAY NEWS - A Mossel Bay boy, aged about 11, apparently keeps dogs in a cage and deliberately starves them.

A reliable source, who chooses to remain anonymous, told the Mossel Bay Advertiser a dog was removed from a cage owned by the boy on 22 March.

The animal, bone-thin and covered in mange on its lower back, was taken to the Mossel Bay branch of the Garden Route SPCA, where it had to be euthanised to put it out of its misery.

The boy was allegedly aggressive towards an adult who tried to rescue the dog and threatened violence to such an extent that police assistance was sought and the adult returned with two police officers.

One of the officers held the boy while the dog was taken away and stood between the boy and the dog.

The boy allegedly said the dog was his and that he refused to feed it, and all it needed was iron supplements. A source has said this was not the first incident of that sort involving the boy.

They said he was known to intentionally cage animals in order to starve them and didn't even give them water, let alone food.

The boy lives with his grandmother in a wooden shack on a premises in Extension 8, near the Da Gamaskop Police Station. Two sisters also live on the premises in a separate wooden shack.

Read more on our sister publication, Mossel Bay Advertiser.