Fears that a Uvongo family’s beloved pit bull Rex had fallen into the hands of a dog fighting syndicate ended recently when he was found chained and thin in a yard nearby.

Ernie Hulley was heartbroken when Rex went missing after racing after monkeys.

“My children and grandchildren are overseas, so Rex and Bulla (our Staffie) are our children. They are everything to us.”

Hulley launched an intensive search for Rex, putting up posters all over town, appealing for assistance on social media and tramping the streets in the hope of finding him.

Hulley says he was worried that Rex, who is young and friendly, may have landed in the wrong hands. He would not have stood a chance in a dog fight, he says.

After nearly a month of heartache, Hulley received an anonymous phone call from a community member who had seen the missing dog on a nearby property.

The Lower South Coast (LSC) SPCA accompanied Hulley to the property.

“I saw Rex chained up in the yard without shelter, food or water. He was also injured and extremely thin,” says Hulley.

“As soon as he heard my voice, he looked up from where he was lying and came running towards the fence.”

Mike Davis, the manager of the LSC SPCA, says Hulley immediately came to them for help.

“For safety, we contacted Wolf Security, which made arrangements to collect a member of the SAPS to accompany the SPCA inspectorate and the owner to the property,” he says.

“We scanned him [Rex] and had the microchip certificate in hand to confirm ownership,” Davis says.

Davis said Rex was handed over to his owner and the absolute joy and happiness between owner and dog was priceless.

Before going home, Hulley and Rex went to the SPCA for a check-up, rabies vaccination and treatment for minor wounds.

“Rex was skin and bone and as soon as he got home, he raced inside to the food bowl,” says Hulley.

Davis says the incident reiterates how imperative it is to not only have your pet microchipped, but to not keep a lost animal that is not yours. “There could be a family missing their pet, and a pet missing their family.”

“If a stray animal is found, report it and bring the animal to the SPCA to be scanned,” stresses Davis.

He says Hulley is not laying charges, but it must be known that taking in a pet that is not yours and not reporting it is seen as theft.

A warning was issued by the SPCA to the person who chained Rex.

The Animal Protection Act No 71 of 1962 states that any person who confines, chains, tethers or secures any animal unnecessarily or under such conditions or in such a manner or position as to cause that animal unnecessary suffering or in any place which affords inadequate space, ventilation, light protection or shelter from heat, cold or weather, is guilty of an offence.