Owl Rescue Centre Defends Hekpoort Giraffe Response After DA Prank Causes Online Backlash

• The Owl Rescue Centre was flooded with abuse after rushing to Hekpoort following a report of a giraffe trapped in a sinkhole
• The call turned out to be a DA political stunt using a life-size giraffe prop to highlight a neglected road hazard
• The centre defended its decision to respond, saying it will never ignore a call for help on the chance it might be fake

A wildlife rescue organisation has hit back at thousands of online critics after being drawn into a DA political stunt that sent its team racing 75 kilometres from an active rescue in Midrand to a fake emergency in Hekpoort, Gauteng.

The Owl Rescue Centre posted on 17 August 2026 to address the wave of criticism the organisation received after news broke that it had responded to what turned out to be a DA prop. DA Shadow MEC for Roads and Logistics Evert Du Plessis had placed a life-size giraffe, nicknamed Gary, into a sinkhole on the R563 in Hekpoort on 14 August 2026 to show how long the hazard had gone unrepaired since the party first flagged it in February the previous year.

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The stunt attracted national attention, but a wave of that attention landed squarely on the rescue centre in the form of abuse.

Why the centre responded

As previously reported on by Briefly News, the organisation explained that it received the call through a trusted contact at another wildlife rehab. A screenshot of a photo appeared to show a giraffe's head protruding from a sinkhole, accompanied by urgent pleas for help. The centre's founder drove from Midrand toward Hekpoort while trying to verify the image. He attempted to contact the original poster, whose number turned out to be invalid, and then ran the image through an AI detection tool, which flagged it as a genuine photograph.

The photo was also posted to the centre's Facebook page, which has more than 195,000 followers, and not one person identified it as a hoax. Confirmation that it was a DA stunt only arrived an hour after the initial call, by which point the team had already been driving toward Hekpoort.

The centre was also clear about its rescue philosophy:

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"We will never ignore a call for help on the off-chance it's fake, only to find out an animal was left to suffer."

Backlash and support

Many online commenters questioned why an owl rescue organisation would respond to a giraffe emergency. The centre clarified that despite its name, it has completed more than 24,000 rescues across thousands of mammal species and carries specialist equipment, including tripod systems, heavy-duty slings and chain blocks, for exactly these kinds of extractions.

The Freedom Front Plus stepped in with a R10,000 donation and challenged the DA and other political parties to match the amount.

South Africans who followed the story closely were largely sympathetic on the Facebook page:

@Nicolette Eveleigh wrote:

"I've seen some of the incredibly nasty comments directed at you over this, and I honestly think they are completely undeserved."

@Leslie Pillay said:

"So the 4,000 commenters expected you to turn a blind eye to an animal in distress. Owl, giraffe, cat, dog, meerkat — a rescue is a rescue. All life matters."

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@Liani Austin added:

"The nasty commentators clearly did not hear the full story. You hold your heads up high and keep on doing your work with passion and purpose."

@Thalia Ashe wrote:

"Don't worry about the reprobates! You've handled this 💯%"

See the full post below:

More wildlife rescues and animal stories

• Briefly News recently reported on a mysterious snake that appeared to rise upright beside a roadside in the Free State, leaving passing motorists stunned.
• A Nigerian zoo sparked laughter across Mzansi after visitors discovered that some of its supposed animals were not quite what they expected.
• South Africa mourned wildlife champion Steve Smit, the co-founder of Monkey Helpline, after his decades-long work protecting urban animals came to an end.

Source: Briefly News