Family fears after dogs are poisoned
A family from Erasmuskloof is devastated after their dogs were poisoned recently.
A mini Labrador was killed with poison in Erasmuskloof, east of Pretoria, on Monday.
Two other dogs of the Van Wyk family were also poisoned but survived.
Elmira van Wyk said she and her daughter were home alone when she heard the dogs fighting.
“I heard our three dogs, Nala, Jessie and Daisy fighting, something they never do. I ran outside to see what was happening and saw Jessie lying on the ground, heaving badly,” she said.
“I pulled the other two off her and she slowly crawled into the house.”
When Van Wyk’s husband Gerhard, and her son arrived home a few minutes later, the other two dogs also started heaving.
“My husband rushed all the dogs to the vet, where they were treated. Unfortunately Daisy, our mini Labrador, died. Nala has since been discharged, but Jessie is still being treated at the vet,” said Van Wyk.
The Van Wyks searched their garden for a snake they saw a couple of days earlier. Instead, they found Vienna sausages laced with poison lying around their garden.
“We took it to our vet and she suspects that it is a common garden poison. We also noticed some black spots that looked like the two-step poison. Our children are heartbroken. This is an incredibly sad situation.”
Van Wyk now fears for the safety of her family. On the same night the dogs were poisoned, the family also found the front gate open, though nobody entered their home.
“We have since had security companies come and inspect our alarm system and ensured that our security is tightened,” said Van Wyk.
Tshwane SPCA spokesperson Korky Levanon has previously said the most common poison used is aldicarb, which has been dubbed two-step. It is sold as temik.
“Temik is not available for the public to buy. Only registered farmers can purchase it. The problem is the poison gets stolen from farmers, and used to poison dogs. The poison is easily purchased at any taxi rank.”
The most common way the poison is fed to dogs is by putting it in Vienna sausages. The poison resembles gun powder, and is highly poisonous, says Levanon.
“All it takes is ingesting less than half a teaspoon of two-step and any animal or toddler is more than likely to die a horrible, painful death with the nervous system being affected and death by asphyxiation.”
Six other dogs were poisoned in separate episodes in Pretoria in November last year.
Also read:
Spike in Centurion dog poisoning
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 072 435 7717.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
