Lenasia - If it had not been for her family’s loyal friend Chucky, Martha Mokwana shudders to think what would’ve happened to her.
Chucky, a six-year-old bull terrier, jumped in front of Mokwana to protect her when two American breed pit bull terriers entered her Lenasia South home.
“I was coming home from the store on Monday afternoon when I saw three dogs running towards me, barking. I ran towards the gate, and as I cried, Chucky came out and ran towards me to guard me. Two of the dogs jumped on top of Chucky. We (Mokwana her son and and daughter) tried to separate the dogs, we even tried to pour water over the dogs, but they just continued attacking. It was painful, traumatic… to see our dog’s ear being torn like that, those dogs don’t deserve to live,” she said on Tuesday.
Sadly for the Mokwana family, they had to put their beloved guard dog down after veterinarians at the SPCA in Sandton said Chucky’s chances of survival were minimal as the left side of his face was mauled off and he had lost a lot of blood.
Chucky wasn’t the only dog attacked on Monday. After moving from the Mokwana house, Leuwellyn Pillay’s two-year-old mixed breed police dog Rico was also attacked as he protected his owner and one-year-old son as the dogs entered his house a few houses away from the Mokwana household.
“Those dogs wanted to finish us, they meant business. When you looked at their eyes, they were red. We didn’t know what to do when they charged in… what if there had been children on the street?” Pillay asked.
Rico had open gashes on his left leg, back and neck from the attack. Both families now claim the entire neighbourhood are wondering when the two pit bulls will attack again and have called for the dogs to be put down.
American pit bull terriers are banned in several parts of the US, like Miami-Dade County in Florida, and in Ontario, Canada, because they are considered dangerous and aggressive.
But Dhanraj Singh, owner of Buddy and Lady, the two pit bulls, was at pains to explain that his dogs were not dangerous to human beings.
“My son had mistakenly left our gate open and the dogs ran out. It was the first time this happened. My dogs are not violent to humans. They retaliated after being hit with bottles and stones.
“I’ve had them for seven years, and in all fairness, if a dog bites a human being, it must be put down, but if it bites another dog, it is nature and it happens,” he said.
Singh said his dogs are kept at the back of the yard and his property was covered with high walls and barbed wire on top of the walls.
He has since gone to the Lenasia South police station to write an affidavit promising to cover the medical costs that might have been incurred by the families.
He denied claims that his dogs had bitten any human being during the attacks. - The Star