Kimberley - Two notorious pit bull terriers attacked at least two people on Monday morning, resulting in one of the victims ending up in hospital with injuries to her face, breast, legs, feet, arms and hands.
Anne Tembu was attacked at the taxi stop in Greenpoint on Monday morning at about 5.30am. Shortly before the incident the dogs apparently also targeted another man.
According to Tembu, who was admitted to the Kimberley Hospital, she tried her best to fight off the dogs by shouting and hitting them with her handbag.
“Everything happened in about three minutes, but I was just too tired to fight anymore after they kept on attacking me and I fell to the ground.”
She was waiting for a taxi to go to work and stood close to a house for shelter in Dutch Reform Road as it was raining.
“The dogs suddenly started biting my legs and ripped the flesh from my thumbs.”
Tembu said that while she had received stitches to some of her wounds, the doctors were taking precautions in the event that septicaemia set in.
“I will just have to wait and I cannot have any surgery or stitches to the wounds that are very deep in case it becomes infected.”
Her husband, James Tembu, said that the dogs should be put down as they are aggressive.
“The dogs are always running in the street and bit another man before they attacked my wife. He went to the clinic after he was bitten. They previously bit a child on the buttocks.”
He added that he intends to take legal action against the owner.
“The dogs killed my dog after they grabbed him by the neck. My wife is lucky to be alive because they could have killed her if one of the neighbours had not intervened by hitting them with a knobkierie from behind the fence. A child would not have survived the attack. The dogs always escape and wander around in the streets.”
Tembu was still in the process of opening a criminal charge of negligence against the owner of the dog on Monday.
SPCA inspector Mario van der Westhuizen indicated that they would inspect the living conditions of the dogs.
He advised that the complainant would have to open a charge relating to the Animal Matters Amendment Act.
“Only a court of law has the authority to order that an animal be put down, unless consent is given by the owner.”
He pointed out that all dogs were supposed to be enclosed on a property.
DFA reporters on Monday visited the house where the dogs are kept, but no one was home.
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