Durban - The 33-year-old woman mauled by four pit bull terriers has been discharged from hospital and one of the dogs has been put down.
Sumenthra Moodley was attacked by a tenant's dogs in the yard of her father's Malvern home while visiting on Friday.
She was bitten on the leg, shoulder, neck and face.
Her father, Leslie Naicker, om Tuesday confirmed Moodley was out of hospital and poured praises on his tenant, Eddie Naicker, for coming to her rescue.
The two men are not related.
Naicker (the father) told the Daily News that the other Naicker was "a very nice tenant" who, during the attack, had placed his hand in the vicious male dog's mouth to prevent it from locking its teeth on the stricken Moodley's neck, an act he said "saved my daughter's life".
Naicker said the tenant had committed to footing the medical bill, which he said included R6 000 for each day spent at Westville Hospital.
He said because they expected the bill to be already in the region of R55 000 or R60 000, they had decided that his daughter would get all further care, including changing of bandages and cleaning of her wounds, at a local clinic because "we can't bury the poor man (tenant) alive".
He said the "most vicious of the dogs" had been put down by the SPCA on Tuesday morning.
"But the owner is giving away the other three dogs because the neighbours have said they no longer want them (dogs) around the neighbourhood because they have small children and they pose a danger to them too," Naicker said.
He said the dogs had come close to attacking an elderly woman neighbour, in her eighties, last month before being struck with a stick and chased away by visitors to the woman's home.
However, apart from those incidents, the dogs had done no harm because they were always locked inside the gates of the tenant's quarters, he said.
Naicker said the tenant lived with his wife and two sons.
"This was a very unfortunate incident, because the dogs are well looked after, they are always indoors with the tenant, and they sleep in the bedrooms with the owner and get all their injections too.
"These dogs were treated like babies," he said.
When contacted for comment , Naicker the tenant, however, said he was "unhappy" with the way the story had been reported in the Daily News.
"People keep on calling me. I'll rather ask the SPCA people to release a statement to you tomorrow (Wednesday) as I'll be meeting with them. They have the history of the dogs. I've had them (dogs) since they were born about 18 months ago."
The tenant said Moodley was not familiar with the dogs and had been scared of them.
"Because she was scared of them, she was right behind me and perhaps the one (dog), instinctively thought that she was attacking me. That could have triggered the behaviour. I'm sad about what happened," he said.
He confirmed he had taken responsibility for Moodley's hospital costs.
Kloof and Highway SPCA spokeswoman, Lisa Morck, confirmed that one of the pit bulls had been put down.
"The male pit bull was euthanised with the owner's consent and the other three remaining pit bulls are going to relocate alongside their owner, who confirmed to us that he will be moving from the property," Morck said.
Naicker the tenant could not be reached to confirm whether he would be leaving.
Daily News