Pitbulls savage grandma

Published Nov 19, 2008

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Grace Page was a woman who didn't really like going into her own garden. Sometimes, she sat on her stoep and looked out, but generally she stayed inside and did sewing for people in the neighbourhood.

Her neighbours would see her leaning out of the window and patting the two American pit bulls that would eventually kill her.

On Tuesday afternoon, Page, 74, was out watering her Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, garden when she was attacked and killed by one of the dogs.

Community leader Errol Jacobs was at home when a group of children came running to him. They had been at Page's gate, asking her for some peaches.

She went to the tree to fetch the boys some fruit when the male dog got through a fence that separated it from the front of the property. For no apparent reason, it attacked her.

"Uncle Errol, Uncle Errol, come help. The dogs have a woman and they won't let go," the children called to Jacobs. He ran to help and what he saw left him still trembling on Tuesday night.

He said he had seen the male dog jump up and grab Page's cheek and tear it off. She had fallen and tried to get up but the dog had attacked her relentlessly.

"We were screaming and throwing stones to get the dog off her but it was mad," said Jacobs. "My daughter threw boiling water and it did nothing. It was only when my son threw a brick at him that he ran to the back.

"That dog, it was evil. After he had eaten and his chest was covered in blood, he went to roll in the sand to clean himself," Jacobs said.

The children who saw the attack had been crying and in shock, he said.

A member of the local community policing forum, Zelda Stellenberg, witnessed police officers shooting the dogs.

Because nobody could enter the property with the dogs pacing up and down, the police officers had been forced to climb on to the roof from a neighbour's house, she explained.

Even though the community had been begging them to shoot the dogs in case Page was still alive, they had waited to get permission from their captain and then for the SPCA to arrive, said Jacobs.

"Then they started shooting the dogs. We counted 37 shots," said Stellenberg. "Even after the male dog was shot in the head three times, he was still charging around all aggressive."

Another neighbour, Nicolene Campbell, said the dogs had bitten Page's husband on his arms and legs not long ago.

"After that, he was scared of the dogs and wanted them gone, but they were the son's dogs and he wouldn't let him get rid of them."

By evening, Page's body was still lying under the peach tree.

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