Terry Neat from Allen’s Nek, writes:
My Dad and I took our two dogs for a walk on Sunday, 3 May and were victims of a terrible dog fight. The incident took place at 8.40am on Road No 3, Allen’s Nek.
We were taking our medium brown mix female, and a little black and brown male Dachshund cross, both rescue dogs from an animal shelter we support, out for a walk.
Both have been walking since they were puppies and are well-socialised. They both had their harnesses and leads on. A couple walked down towards us with three pit bulls when two of them suddenly got off their leads and came tearing towards us. We tried to wrap ourselves around our dogs to protect them. The owner was running down the road trying to catch them. It all happened so fast, with not much time to act in any other way.
Both pit bulls bit and hung onto my little Daxie, Jussy. I could see that they were really hurting him as his mouth was bleeding and his screams were blood-curdling. These pit bulls just would not let go, despite the owner hitting them with a stick and shouting at them.
In trying to help our little dog, my Dad and I were both bitten on our hands by the pit bulls. Mine was very bad and I had a chunk of flesh on the back of my hand missing and bleeding profusely. My Dad is a pensioner and was struggling just to stay on his feet. I lost my footing and fell onto the road, finding out later that I had broken two ribs.
A cyclist stopped, just threw his bike aside and started helping us. There was also a gentleman in a 4 x 4 who stopped to help. Eventually, the dogs let go, but my Daxie was injured severely, but has since managed to pull through.
The witnesses (the cyclist and man in the 4 x 4) offered to type the owner’s details as I was bleeding so much, my fingers kept slipping off my phone. I was also in terrible shock, as was my Dad. They all offered to take me to the emergency unit at the hospital or help in any way they could.
We have opened a case against the owner for damages, and having witness statements (affidavits) would really help to strengthen our case.
We are so grateful to those gents who stopped to help us. I would like them to contact me (if they are willing) to give a statement of events of what they saw. We would also like to thank them for their concern and kindness, as they will never know how much it meant to us in that moment.
They can contact me on 081 351 3396 or neattl@eskom.co.za. Alternatively, they can contact my dad, Gordon, on 076 837 7766 or gordono@telkomsa.net.
