Zanele Vayisi s aid she had been on her way to visit a relative and was walking alone in Dawn when two dogs – a Boerboel -Doberman cross and a doberman-dalmatian cross – came out of a yard and attacked her.
"They came running towards me and as I was looking for something to wave them away they were already on top of me," she said.
"I lost my footing and fell down. They viciously mauled me."
Vayisi said the incident had taken place in Klein Road, adding that she had walked that stretch of road before and never had problems.
Describing the attack, Vayisi said it was like a scene from a horror movie as the dogs came at her.
" I didn’t have time to defend myself and I thought I was going to die," she said.
Vayisi suffered facial wounds and her left thumb was bitten off. She also suffered wounds to both arms, one of which was broken.
"They nearly ripped off my left breast and I have bite marks on both my legs," she said. "I also have scratches from the fight with these dogs."
Vayisi said while the dogs were mauling her, four adults had rushed out of the yard where the dogs had come from, but did nothing to assist her.
"I couldn’t believe them," she said. "I was calling in isiXhosa for help. I lost my left thumb in front of them, but these people were walking around me, not knowing what to do."
Eventually, a teenage boy emerged from the same yard and managed to stop the dogs.
"If it was not for that boy, I would have died there."
Vayisi, who was in pain, asked for an ambulance to be called but the people allegedly told her they did not have the telephone number.
When she asked to be taken to hospital in their vehicle, she said she was told it was not working.
"They said their car was broken. I gave up."
She said someone eventually took her to Frere Hospital, where she received treatment.
Vayisi said she had heard it was not the first time the dogs had attacked a person in the area.
The Daily Dispatch yesterday visited the house and the two dogs were seen inside the yard on their leashes.
The dog’s owner, Steven Bardwell, said he wasn’t at home at the time of the attack and had heard that three dogs were involved in the incident.
"I am sorry for what had happened," he said, adding the dogs were not on their leashes at the time.
(Daily Dispatch - Sept 21, 2011)
