A young Cape Town girl narrowly escaped death following a vicious attack by a neighbour’s pit bull.
Nine-year-old Mishka Delong was leaving her Bonteheuwel school on Wednesday when the dog attacked her.
Witness Yolanda Pypers, 45, says she was at a tuckshop near the school when she heard the little girl’s cry.
“A bunch of schoolchildren were leaving after netball practice,” she said.
“Mishka was bouncing the ball when the dog from the nearby house went straight for her.
“It first bit her and let go but it went back for her. And this time it grabbed her by the leg and dragged her across the road. Everyone there kept screaming and throwing rocks at it to try and make it stop.
“I think it was all the noise and the people surrounding it that made the dog let go. After that she came to me and I just held her and there was so much blood. Her school uniform was in tatters.”
The Grade 3 learner said : “I saw the dog running towards me but I was too scared to even move.
“First it bit me on my waist and then it came back to bite me on my leg. I started screaming and it only let go after people threw things at it.”
The girl’s great-grandmother Caroline Peters, 84, is thankful Mishka survived.
“When I heard a pit bull had attacked her I just cried – I did not know what condition she was in,” she said.
“I know how vicious those dogs can be and the thought of it having its teeth in her scared me. That thing could have easily killed her.”
When the Daily Voice visited the pit bull’s owner, she told us the dog had been tied up but it broke its chain once it saw the bouncing ball.
The woman who agreed to an interview, promptly refused to talk after letting it slip that her gate was left open.
“It does not like balls so it broke loose and went after it,” she said.
Police said no charge was laid but they are aware of the incident and are in the process of removing the dog.
*This article was published in the Daily Voice