Witness Report

We now have a written testimony from a Belgian couple staying at the Riu Hotel who witnessed a woman deliberately feeding something to Rasher. When questioned she became angry and ran off.

My is (name withheld), I am from Belgium. I was a guest at the Riu Funana, Santa Maria, Sal, Cabo Verde until the 14th October.

On Thursday 8th October I attended the presentation given by SOS Tartarugas at the hatchery on the beach outside the Riu Hotel. We watched the presentation from under the lifeguard station. Following the presentation, at approximately 5pm, we walked to the other side of the hatchery (close to ScubaCaribe) where there were other tourists watching.

There was a dog sitting outside the hatchery and as we were walking past we noticed a woman talking to the dog and holding something in her hand that she was offering to the dog. We asked her why she was feeding the dog as he was wearing a collar which meant he belonged to someone and also the dog appeared to be very well fed. The dog took the food from her hand.

The woman talked to us in a language we did not understand. She seemed upset that we were questioning her and immediately walked away towards the hotel. We did not see where she went.

The woman was wearing brown/red shorts and a white strapless top. She had dark skin and we feel she is probably of Capeverdian or Portuguese rather than African descent. She had dark shoulder length curly hair, small eyes and had broad hips. We looked for this woman during our stay but did not see her again.