Durban - A vicious debate has erupted over the perceived threat posed by pit bull terriers after a number of serious attacks in the province in recent months.
Animal behaviourist John Faul has pleaded with the government to ban the dogs. However, his call has been rejected by Jeanette Erasmus of the Pit Bull Federation of SA, an advocacy group for the dogs.
The debate comes in the wake of two family pit bulls mauling Umlazi toddler Amukelani Bhengu to death in his home on Monday.
The fatal attack came a month after a Pietermaritzburg woman was mauled to death by her dogs, two rott-weilers and a boerbul.
A day later an 89-year-old Phoenix grandfather survived after two pit bulls attacked him as he was about to enter his home. In 2014, a 14-month-old Richards Bay child survived a similar attack.
PETolog.com, listing “banned dogs by country”, recorded that pit bulls were banned in 26 countries.
National Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries spokeswoman Bomikazi Molapo said the department was not aware of the attacks involving pit bulls and the calls for the dogs to be banned.
She said the pit bull was “not recognised or registered” as a breed.
Faul, who according to his website is a practising member of the Animal Behaviour Consultants of South Africa and Associate Member of the Animal Care College and Canine Studies Institute in England, argued that the dogs should not be kept as pets because they posed a threat not just to broader society but also their families.
In 1991 Britain banned the pet breeding of pit bulls - alongside the Japanese Tosa, Dogo Argentino and Fila Braziliero - under the Dangerous Dogs Act.
“Ban them immediately. That dog is a threat to us (society),” Faul said, adding that pit bulls were a greater threat to their own families than to anyone else. These dogs, he said, “are not normal dogs. They think we are a part of them because we associate and live together and share food and living space together.”
He said it was pre-programmed in pit bulls to attack anything that was a threat: “It is hardwired into its brain to show what is called a defence reflex: aggression,” he said.
“If they were the last dogs remaining in the world as family pets, no one should keep them. They are highly dominant, moody and very unpredictable”.
Erasmus differed, saying that the behaviour of a pit bull depended on the treatment it received from its owner and that they were “not human-aggressive”.
She said owners of the dogs that mauled victims should be criminally charged and jailed. She asked who had asserted that the dogs involved in the attacks were pit bulls.
“The breed is getting blame from people who are not specialists in the field,” Erasmus said.
She said “ignorant” owners who raised the dogs “for the wrong reasons” should be held accountable, and not the pit bulls.
She said some owners raised the dogs to be aggressive, hence the attacks.
A move to ban pit bulls would have to go through a parliamentary process, which would include public consultations, before being legislated.
The Facebook page,” Support Pit Bull Bans”, in a post said: “Pit bulls aren’t vicious because they have bad owners. They attract bad owners because they are inherently vicious.”
The page said this was “why the pit types have a disproportionate number of bad owners”.
Gawie Grobler of www.pit bullsa.co.za told The Mercury:
“It all boils down to the respect (the dog receives).
“If there’s no respect, then the dog won’t show respect. One of their qualities is their human-friendliness.”
The Mercury