Neighbours take aim at airguns

A WATERFALL resident plans to lay a charge against her neighbour for discharging an airgun in public, which led to the death of two small breed dogs.

According to Denise Wilson, she left for work on Wednesday 23 July, and put her dog Chloe (a Yorkie cross with a Maltese poodle), and her daughter’s dog, Milo (a Dachshund) in the front garden.

When she returned home at 1pm, she saw her neighbour firing his airgun. She knew straight away that the dogs would be distressed.

The dogs ran to the far end of her daughter’s garden and tried to get through a wire fence. Denise said she looked in the front yard and couldn’t find them so she began driving around the neighbourhood to search for them.

When she couldn’t find them, she returned home to call the local SPCA. That is when she heard a whimpering sound and eventually found Milo impaled on the wire fence. One of the spikes had pierced his groin. Chloe was no where to be seen.

Denise rushed Milo to a local vet, but he died. She returned to her home to search for Chloe. A neighbour around the corner from her house found Chloe in her yard but she was already dead.

Chloe distressed from the firing of the airgun, also ran through the fence, injuring herself and eventually bled to death in the neighbour’s yard.

Denise said her daughter, Michelle Steinhussen, confronted the neighbour who discharged the airgun, and he argued that he was shooting at monkeys and does target practice.

“He seemed unsympathetic at our loss, and chose to ignore our previous requests for him not to discharge his weapon in public especially since we have small dogs.

“My daughter is planning to lay a charge against the neighbour for discharging a weapon in public and is currently seeking the help of the Kloof and Highway SPCA, to stop her neighbour from causing further harm to animals in the area.

Hillcrest resident, Lindsay Gray, confirmed that there had been an increase in residents discharging paintball guns and airguns to frighten the monkeys.

Her neighbour had recently found green splatters against their wall from a paintball gun and had also been informed by the adjoining neighbour that if they heard a gun going off, they must not worry it is ‘only an airgun to frighten the monkeys’.

Airguns and paintball guns frighten other wildlife such as dogs and cats with often-devastating results.

“When my daughter was about five, we were having lunch outside when the next thing what we thought was a bullet came whizzing just over my husband’s head. We knew it was coming from the neighbour behind and went to investigate.

“One of the sons openly admitted to using a pellet gun to shoot at the monkeys, but that pellet has to land somewhere and it could have injured my child. As it was it just missed my husband,” she said.

She added that monkeys do not like cameras or binoculars being pointed at them. They also do not like being sprayed with water. Lindsay said if residents wanted to chase them away, those are the methods to use.

Lt Frank Mkhize, communications officer at Hillcrest SAPS, confirmed the report and said it is illegal to fire a weapon in public which can either injure someone or destroy property.