Trial date set for accused dog poisoner

The man accused of poisoning his neighbour’s dog on Salisbury Road in January has had his trial date set.

Appearing in the Umhlali Periodical Court on Thursday morning, the accused was told that his trial will start on July 22 at the Umhlali Court.

The Courier was shown video footage of the incident where one of Amir Abbas’s dogs was allegedly poisoned in January.

The footage shows a man coming out of a house across the road from Abbas’s home on Salisbury Road at around 11am on Saturday, January 18. The man in the video then throws sausages over the gate.

He returns to the gate 10 minutes later and looks like he is enticing the dogs to eat the sausages.

Abbas’s German Shepherd Bella then eats the viennas, takes a few steps and falls over dying within a few seconds. The man then returns to the neighbouring house.

The accused is facing charges of damage to property and animal cruelty. There are two counts of each of these charges, one of each for Bella and Tyke’s death respectively.

Tyke, one of Abbas dogs, was poisoned last year in January but died in March after a firecracker exploded in his mouth. The firecracker was also allegedly thrown over the wall into the property

The accused is expected to plead on July 22.