Two men were attacked by pitbulls in separate incidents in Ocean View this week, prompting a warning from welfare group Tears that it was a matter of time before a child was seriously injured or killed.
Raiz Adams, 24, was badly bitten by a neighbour's two dogs that were running loose while Jacques Rossouw, 21, was attacked after a pitbull broke free of its chain and bit him on the stomach and arm.
Adams said that if the authorities did not act he would have to take matters into his own hands.
"I can't wait until my three-year-old daughter is attacked when she goes walking with her granny."
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Adams was walking along a path towards his house on Thursday when the dogs - both pitbull crossbreeds - went for him.
One bit his leg and as he fell to the ground the other went for his face.
"I kicked the one and hit the other with a brick, but it made them angrier."
He said if his father hadn't rushed to help him he could be dead.
Adams said an elderly woman was attacked by the same dogs.
"I confronted the owner who said he'd tie them up, but an hour later they were still loose."
The owner's mother, Salma Moses said this was the first time she'd heard about it and offered to pay Adam's doctor's bill.
Adams and Ingrid De Storie of Tears claimed there had been a spate of attacks by dogs in recent months.
Tears runs a mobile clinic in the area and De Storie says they regularly got complaints about the dogs attacking people. She said that most youngsters in Ocean View had pitbulls which they used for fighting.
"They also set them on smaller dogs for fun. Sometimes they even send them into people's houses to look for targets."
Adams said when he went to lay a charge at the Ocean View police station he was told they couldn't because it was the dogs that bit him, not the owner. He has since laid a charge with the Metro Police who said they would pass it on to law enforcement.
In the second incident Rossouw went to see if friends were home and a pitbull in the back garden broke its chain and launched itself at him.
"He pushed me over so I fell back and it went for my face."
De Storie's son Clive Geldenhuys, 23, managed to pull the dog off Rossouw before it could do more damage.
Last week two teenage boys set their dogs on a 20-year-old baboon called Eric shortly after the animals had savaged and killed a three-legged cat. Eric was badly hurt but survived and the teenage boys are facing charges of cruelty. It wasn't the first time they had done this.
Adams claimed that late last year the younger of the boys had set his dog on their family's Maltese Poodle which had been sitting outside their house. He said the boy had loosened the leash and set the pitbull on their Maltese called Chico, killing him.
The dogs - a male pitbull and a female bull terrier - are currently at the SPCA until the outcome of the court case.
De Storie said she hoped the dogs were not returned to the owners who not only used them for fighting, but neglected the animals as well.
She said that when she confronted the youngster about setting the dogs on Eric he had simply laughed at her.
"I told him he was lucky Eric was old and couldn't fight back otherwise his dogs could have been killed. But he boasted that his dogs could kill five baboons."
De Storie added that Tears was embarking on an education campaign in the local schools to try to educate children on how to look after animals.
- This article was originally published on page 12 of Cape Argus on August 01, 2009
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