Emmarentia assault
EMMARENTIA - A relaxing walk in the park with their pug turned into a nightmare for a couple after they were assaulted by a man and two boerboels.
The Parkview police are combing Roosevelt Park after an unprovoked attack on a couple and their dog at the Johannesburg Botanic Gardens.
A Victory Park couple, the Wolfsons, were walking their pug, Clementine at Emmarentia Dam in the afternoon on 18 July.
A man on a bike with two boerboel dogs came coasting past. The one dog was allegedly wearing a muzzle, but the other wasn’t, and it immediately attacked the pug.
“The boerboel shook Clementine around like a rag doll,” Mrs Wolfson said on 21 July.
“Meanwhile, the dog’s owner just stood there, doing nothing to call his dog off or to help to rescue the pug. My husband ran up to them to try and get our dog, and the man reacted violently, punching him in the chest. I ran toward the boerboel, screaming and waving our leash and jumping up and down. The dog was startled and dropped our pug, and she rolled to me. As I picked my dog up and retreated, the man ran to me and punched me in the shoulder and then in the face.”
Mrs Wolfson said she asked her assailant why he’d done that and that he’d replied “self-defence.”
“I am five foot two inches tall and I was backing away to check my dog’s injuries, I was not attacking,” she said.
“I was left standing there, bleeding, while the guy grabbed his dog’s leashes and cycled away.”
The Wolfson’s tried to follow their assailant in their car toward the fire station in Roosevelt Park, but they were afraid that he would attack them or set his dogs on them. They decided to go home and call the police.
They say they luckily did not require medical attention, and that Clementine recovered quickly and was not seriously injured.
“But we are shocked by the uncalled for level of violence that this individual displayed during an unprovoked attack,” Mrs Wolfson said.
“This guy and his dogs are a danger to our community. People with vicious, uncontrollable dogs should not be in public places with kids and small dogs around.”
The Wolfson’s and the Parkview police are appealing to the community to come forward with information. The alleged assailant is described as Caucasian, average height, probably in his late 30s and with light brown hair.
The Parkview Police said that people walking the park should carry pepper spray with them at all times to ward off attackers.
*City Parks was contacted for comment and had 48 hours to respond. At the time of going to print they had not responded.
