South Africa: Bloody morning in Horison when Boerboel went on rampage

SOUTH AFRICA -- Kingfisher Street in Horison looked like a scene right out of Stephen King’s movie, Cujo, when a Boerboel managed to get out of its owner’s property and went on the rampage on the morning of 14 September.

It appears that the gate on the property encountered an obstruction when closing, which caused it to open again, leaving the front of the property exposed. The dog managed to get out of the property somehow.

His first victim was a woman walking past the house. Natasha Taljaard, who uses this road to drop her son off at school, said she saw the dog jump on the woman and start biting her.

“I drove my car onto the pavement and tried to get the dog off her by bumping into it. I managed to bump him off and then hooted for the people in whose driveway this happened to open the gate and get the woman inside and away from the dog. I could not get out of my car to help, because the dog wanted to attack me too,” a shaken Taljaard said.

Then a vehicle arrived and a woman got out, approached the dog and patted it.

“I thought it was the owner of the dog as she went up to it and patted its head. However, the next moment the dog turned on her as well and started biting her. I drove to where the woman was, told her to get into my car and took her back to her vehicle. She then drove off saying she was going to the hospital,” said Taljaard.

Henk van der Berg from the Honeyhills Neighborhood Watch said that the dog also tried to attack two cyclists but they got away by fending the dog off with their bicycles.

The dog also chased a scooter and bit another neighborhood patroller on his arm and hand. “I tried to get the dog to leave Bobby alone by cornering it with my tow truck, but he went underneath the truck and continued his attack.

I then took the tow hook, hit it against the road, and the dog stopped his attack and went to sit in front of one of the residents’ gates,” said Van der Berg.

The SPCA then arrived and Inspector Mike Allen and trainee inspector Michelle Kok captured the dog and took it to the SPCA in Roodepoort.

According to the ER24 spokeperson, Chitra Bodisang Harduth, their paramedics attended the scene. They found a man and a woman had sustained injuries.

“The man, who is believed to be in his 40s, sustained injuries to his hand, while the woman, who is believed to be 38 years of age, sustained injuries to her hands, left shoulder and head. The woman was transported to hospital for further treatment but the man declined to be taken to hospital,” she said.

The owner of the dog was contacted and informed about the incident. Bruce (surname withheld by request) said the dog is not aggressive and has never done anything like this before.

“He’s purely a guard dog,” said Bruce. “I have two daughters whose safety is of the utmost importance to me – I would not put their lives in danger. We usually keep the dog in the back, separated from the front of the property. I am sure something must have happened to agitate him.

My primary concern is the injured people and how I can assist. I do not like living in animosity with my neighbors,” he said.

Mandy Cattanach, the manager of the SPCA Roodepoort said the owners had already been to the SPCA to reclaim their dog, but she had asked them to leave it with the SPCA for 24 hours, for assessment purposes.

According to her, the two girls were playing around with the dog at the SPCA, and nothing happened.

“We need to determine what is wrong with it because it was very traumatized upon arrival. I cannot keep the dog for more than 24 hours and will probably give it back to the owner. This incident was not a violation of the Animal Protection Act, but it was a violation of the by-laws. I can only keep it if the Metro instructs me to because of an investigation,” Cattanach said.

(Roodepoort Record - Sept 14, 2016)