Family reunions

PRETORIA, South Africa -- Ruling party militants chased the puppy's owners from their farm in Zimbabwe, then turned on the Labrador mix, gouging out its eyes.

Bloodied and wounded, the puppy wandered the bush for days before volunteers rescued the dog and airlifted it to safety in neighboring South Africa.

The dog, Batty, is one of some 3,000 pets evacuated to South Africa after being abandoned amid Zimbabwe's chaotic seizure of white-owned farms over the past three years.

More than half the animals have been reunited with their owners, while the rest have found new homes in South Africa.

"Many of the farmers and their families have lost everything, so it means a lot to be reunited with their pets," said Fiona Manuel, a volunteer at Wetnose Animal Rescue, a shelter that takes in the abandoned animals.

Zimbabwe's government has confiscated at least 5,000 white-owned farms, devastating the agriculture sector in a country already in turmoil from political unrest and the economic policies of President Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe defends the practice of seizing the farms for redistribution to impoverished blacks, saying the land is being returned to its rightful owners.

At the Wetnose shelter, in the South African capital of Pretoria, volunteers deal with a little-known result of the program: the abandonment of thousands of animals.

Many animals, including dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, geese, swans, horses and cattle have been slaughtered. Others are cruelly treated: One rescued dog had acid poured over its coat.

"I don't understand how there can be this cruelty," Manuel said. "Perhaps it is to spite the owners, knowing how much they love their animals."

The numbers arriving in Pretoria have started to decline now that most white farmers have fled the country, Manuel said.

Many have been reunited with their families who moved to South Africa. When a shipment of 90 animals arrived last year, the owners of 22 of them were there to welcome them.

"The owners waiting here were in tears when we drove in," Manuel said.