She’s a self-described animal rescue vigilante whose carefully crafted public image suggests she does it for the love of the pets she takes in. But why does she have so many “haters”? In a three-part investigation, TONY WALL and CAROLINE WILLIAMS ask, who is Charmaine Wolmarans, and should she be allowed to continue caring for animals?
This is part three: The silence of the ducks. You can read the first part here.
“I just saw this horror. It’s just blood and carnage,” Charmaine Wolmarans said.
She was describing the scene at Pixies Animal Rescue on the morning of Saturday, September 18, 2021, when 11 ducks and rabbits were found slaughtered and dismembered.
Wolmarans notified police and the SPCA and told Stuff she believed the break-in was connected to a Facebook “hate page” that was slandering her and Pixies.
She called it “murder” and set up a fundraising page, so she could offer a reward for information.
Charmaine Wolmarans launched a fundraising campaign after her ducks were slaughtered. Pictured is the sole survivor of the massacre.
She was worried there’d be more attacks.
“I’m locking gates, and I’m locking doors – I hate to live in fear. I moved to New Zealand [from South Africa] 14 years ago to escape that fear and now, that’s exactly what I am going through,” she said at the time.
But now, a twist: A man who used to live and work at the Dairy Flat property where Pixies was based claims he killed the animals.
Why? To make it look like their online enemies had done it for “revenge”, to garner sympathy and support, he says.
The man, who no longer lives in Auckland and has fallen out with Wolmarans, asked that his name be withheld. He says he was helped by a young woman from South Africa who’d also been staying and working at the property.
Stuff’s series has revealed that Wolmarans used the human tranquilliser lorazepam to snatch dogs she believed needed rescuing, and ran a cattery that became over-run with sick animals.
She’s also spoken candidly about her background as a strip club and brothel owner in South Africa , where she has fraud convictions, and admitted that a woman she referred to as her sister with breast cancer, Caroline Colandrea, is actually her.
Asked if the former workers could have killed the ducks and rabbits, Wolmarans said: “I doubt it if they did. I really doubt it if they did. I don’t believe they could do it, they’ve rescued with me for over four years.”
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Ducks at Pixies Animal Rescue. Several were slaughtered after a reported break-in.
Wolmarans adds that she had nothing to do with the incident – it would make no sense if she did. She claims to know the identity of the real killer – someone connected to a former supporter who is now one of her enemies.
That person vehemently denies having anything to do with it.
Police declined to answer questions about the case for privacy reasons. No arrests have been made.
The man, who we’ll call Rick, says he used his air rifle to shoot the rabbits in their cages. He cut off their heads to remove evidence of the pellets and later burned the heads, along with the bloodied clothes he’d worn.
“There was a big oil drum there, and I just chucked everything in there and poured gasoline over it and set it on fire.
“We covered our tracks really well because we didn’t want to get in shit with the law.”
With the help of his friend, Rick says they rounded up about seven ducks and put them in a holding crate.
“We took them out and slit their throats one by one. We let them bleed out all over the grass and stuff.” This was to make it look like a “revenge” attack, he says.
Rick says he worked on a farm in South Africa, so “I was used to slaughtering [animals] like that, so for me, I was used to it”.
Charmaine Wolmarans
Eric the peacock is embroiled in a custody battle between his previously homeless owner and the founder of Pixies Animal Rescue.
But the woman who helped him was traumatised by her role. In a series of message via social media she told another former Pixies volunteer: “I actually love animals and I cried multiple times.”
She added: “I know for a fact I did not let any animal suffer.”
The woman said in one message that seeing dogs and cats euthanised at Pixies “destroyed me” and she left. She has since returned to South Africa and did not respond to messages asking for comment.
Rick says after the killing of the ducks and rabbits was publicised, a lot of donations came in. “Everyone was crying and sympathetic.”
He describes his time working at Pixies as a “total nightmare” – he alleges he was “paid peanuts” to work long shifts and weekends, and eventually left.
At one point he was asked to use an excavator to dig a grave for a horse that had died of an infection, and several dogs that had been euthanised.
Wolmarans confirms a horse is buried on the property. She says she paid the man the minimum wage and also covered some of his expenses.
After the ducks and rabbits were killed, Wolmarans posted on social media that the “vile offence” had sparked a series of changes at Pixies “as we put out a call to take animals off our hands since we could not be… assured of safety on the premises”.
The SPCA had taken some animals and rehomed them, she said. She also announced that Pixies had had to change its policy of being a “no-kill” shelter because of the large numbers of sick animals it had taken on.
“[The policy] was changed under consultation with vets and a leading animal welfare organisation,” she wrote.
“It is sad when any life is ended, but all animals are vet checked and advice is followed as regards this issue. We aim to save lives, and to find other solutions wherever feasible.”
Wolmarans has reduced the size of her rescue operation and vowed to learn from her mistakes.
