Durban - A Howick mother whose special-needs son died in hospital at the weekend after being attacked by a neighbour’s two large dogs, will never forget the horror of watching the dogs sink their teeth into the neck and leg of her small 8-year-old.
Estelle Sinkins, a freelance arts writer and former arts editor of The Witness, watched helplessly, screaming and wildly throwing things at the snarling cross-German Shepherds, as her son James, who had suffered since birth from a heart defect and curvature of the spine, was dragged off his bicycle while playing in their garden in Geekie Road.
The dogs, which were later removed and destroyed after reports to the police and the SPCA, were the same animals that killed the Sinkinses’ family cat last Christmas and also killed their black Labrador two years ago, Sinkins told The Mercury.
She said she and her husband, Graydon, had, on those occasions, asked for the dogs to be put down, but had eventually given in to their neighbour’s pleading for them not do so.
A tearful Shanaaz Alladin, the owner of the dogs, Titan and Seth, who acknowledged but preferred not to comment on the previous attacks, said on Sunday that she was not home when her pets attacked James.
“I have a big fence. I looked for holes in it but could find nothing, so have no idea how this happened,” she said, adding that she was awaiting results of police investigations.
She felt strongly for the Sinkins family in their time of grief, and was still trying to gather the facts, she added. The dogs were always locked up when people entered her property. They were not vicious, and were loving pets of her 15-year-old son, Alladin explained.
James’s parents spent many hours watching him fight for his life during surgery after the attack at 5pm on Thursday, but he died at Pietermaritzburg’s St Anne’s Hospital early on Friday evening.
He had lost a lot of blood after vascular artery damage.
“It’s all over. James died a few minutes ago from cardio-related problems. Simply cannot believe it,” Sinkins wrote on her Facebook page at 5pm on Friday, sparking a spate of messages of condolence.
Sinkins said on Sunday that she had left her son playing with his bicycle near a cottage on her property occupied by her parents, when what started as a wonderful day turned into her worst nightmare.
“James and I had just enjoyed a lovely morning together attending a children’s play. He was in a very happy place when I waved goodbye to him to go to Durban.”
She was at her gate, about to drive to Durban for work, when the family’s golden Labrador dashed past her “at full tilt” and started barking near the cottage. When she ran there and saw her son gushing blood and being dragged by the neighbour’s “wolf-like” dogs, she started throwing things at them “like a wild woman”.
Eventually the dogs released the child, leaving Sinkins to take James’s bruised and bloodied body into her arms. “I will never forget the look in his eyes. He was always so trusting of animals,” she said.
“Being your mother was challenging, but with a brave heart and a cheeky grin you conquered every challenge. Along the way, you touched everyone,” Sinkins said in another Facebook post.
“I would have given everything so that your final hours were not filled with pain and fear. I love you my darling boy and I will never stop till my dying day,” she added, going on to refer to James as “my little braveheart”.
James was born with two heart defects, a cleft palate and curvature of the spine, which necessitated his having back operations every few months. For 18 months he was fed food through a straw, his mother explained. He had heart surgery when he was 7 weeks old to repair the most severe problems but was still left with a hole in the heart.
Police spokeswoman Captain Gay Ebrahim confirmed on Sunday that an inquest docket had been opened at the Howick police station.
“Initially a case was opened for keeping a ferocious dog. However, since the child died, an inquest docket has now been opened.”
She confirmed that both the dogs had been put down.
The Mercury
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