Springs woman’s distraught search to find her dog Neena — dead or alive
A Springs woman who lost her dog recently, searched through a dumpsite for over two hours, hoping to find the dog's carcass which had been found dumped in Western Extension a day earlier.
Michelle Myburgh wants to know whether the Staffordshire Bull Terrier found on the pavement wrapped in black bags on August 12 is her pet.
Myburgh, who lives in Geduld, Springs, and her family have been looking for their female Staffie (Neena) since she disappeared on July 29.
“We found out that the dog dumped in Western Extension would have been taken to the (Weltevreden Landfill).”
Myburgh and two friends went to the site on August 13, a day after the article about the dumped dog was published online.
They spent about two-and-a-half hours sifting through rubbish to find the carcass, but their search ended fruitlessly.
“I need to know if it was my baby or not, I need closure,” Myburgh said.
“The dead dog in the photo looks like it was used in dogfights, it could not have been a car, otherwise there would have been more damage to the body.
“Neena was not chipped, because we never thought it would happen to us, but we want to create awareness now, for people to get their pets chipped.
“The chances are much bigger of getting them back once they are chipped.”
Myburgh and her family have handed out 5 500 flyers in her area and she said people in Kempton Park and Benoni have printed and distributed additional posters about Neena’s disappearance.
“I go to vets and the Benoni and Brakpan SPCAs weekly to see if they have any news about her, and since the Springs SPCA is closer to home, I visit them daily,” she said.
“We also go to look at dogs hit by cars on the highway nearby, but have had no success yet.”
Myburgh explained how the search has added 1 200km to her car’s mileage in the past two weeks, even though her job keeps her mostly at home.
The family created a Facebook page called Finding Neena, on August 2; the page had garnered 706 likes by August 15.
“We boost the Facebook page weekly,” she added.
“So far we have had an awesome response, in terms of people being willing to help.”
Neena is three-and-a-half years old with a reddish, dark brown coat and she is of medium height and “very friendly”.
“She has a patch on her hind leg, about the size of a R5 coin, where no hair grows and a white patch, resembling an X on her chest,” Myburgh said.
Myburgh and her family adopted Neena when she was three months old.
The mother said she would not stop searching for her dog, continuing to check on social media, with animal rescue organisations and advertising in newspapers.
“I heard stories of people who found their pets after two or three years of searching, I won’t give up.”
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