Durban - A Verulam man may have to undergo plastic surgery, skin grafts and physiotherapy after he was mauled by his neighbour’s pitbulls early on Wednesday morning.
Speaking from his Osindisweni Hospital bed, Rishaan Singh, 23, said he had arrived home from a friend’s house when the attack happened.
“I parked my car at the bottom of the embankment of my apartment. Both the dogs were at the top, growling.
“They suddenly ran down. There was no barking. They just attacked me.”
Singh tried to fight the dogs off for about 10 minutes, while shouting for the owners’ attention.
“I tried to fight but as I got one off the other would come back at me. I put my hands up to block them and they bit my hands. Luckily they didn’t reach my head or they would have crushed my skull. I had a pocket knife but couldn’t get it open so I punched and kicked but they wouldn’t let go.”
Even though Singh was wearing takkies, the dogs managed to bite through the shoes.
Singh’s mother and surrounding neighbours awoke to his shouts and, as they came out the apartment block, the dogs ran off down the road.
“My mother hit them with a stick and they tried to go for her but more people came out and they ran away. If the people hadn’t arrived I wouldn’t be alive today.”
Singh said the owner came out about 10 minutes after the attack but wasn’t particularly helpful.
Singh claimed the dogs were locked up for months at a time which only adds to their aggression.
“The owner did say he would try to help pay for the medical bills but we haven’t heard anything.”
Suren Balram of the Trans Natal Flying Squad was the first on the scene at the Mountview residence.
“I arrived at about 12.30am and walked up the stairs where there was just a trail of blood. The young man was bleeding profusely. He was in a state of shock and was losing consciousness.”
Balram had a first-aid kit on hand and bandaged up the open wounds on Singh’s, legs, shoulders and feet.
He said this wasn’t the first time he’d been called out because of attacks by the same dogs. Last year Balram was called out when they killed another neighbour’s dog.
He claimed they also attacked a man passing by leaving him badly injured.
Balram said the owner of the pitbulls was on the scene at the time of the attack but did not show any remorse.
“He has a male and female dog as well a number of pups upstairs in his apartment. He breeds them.”
On arrival, Balram said the dogs were nowhere to be seen, and when asked, the owner replied that they’d disappeared.
The victim was taken Osindisweni Hospital in the Buffelsdraai area where he will remain for five days.
“I visited him in hospital yesterday. The lacerations from the attack are approximately 8cm deep and up to 12 to 15cm long. Two of his fingers are not functioning and the doctors said he will have to go for plastic surgery.”
The owner of the dogs, Clement Chetty, said because a number of cars had been broken into in the area, he’d let his dogs out for protection at night. He said the dogs were “basically harmless” and this was the first person they’d attacked.
Chetty said ultimately the dogs had done what they were supposed to do, although he was sorry it had happened to his neighbour. He said he didn’t see the incident and that Balram had not attended to Singh but “just stood there, he didn’t do anything”.
“I was going to put the dogs down but I treat my dogs like my children and have decided to give them to a farm owner in Inanda.”
He said these dogs were not thoroughbred but rather pitbull/German shepherd crosses. He denied ever having bred dogs but said he had previously had a mix of other dogs which he’d since given away.
Chetty said he’d been charged with assault after a close friend and himself got into an altercation over their dogs.
“He had boerboels and tried to make them fight my dogs. He hit my dogs and I assaulted him so he pressed charges.”
He confirmed that the SPCA had been to his home, but said it was for “routine checks”.
“I’m not allowed to have more than three dogs which is why I gave the others away. Now I will have no dogs.”
Regarding Singh’s medical bills, Chetty said he was in contact with the family and they were awaiting blood tests.
Daily News