POLOKWANE – Several Leeuwkuil residents’ dogs have been stabbed during the night over the last two weeks, with three of them dying as a result.
Minke Terblanche told Review that she was woken up by the sound of her two crossbreed sheepdogs, Jenny and Nikki, barking ferociously.
“As my husband opened the front door to call the dogs, we heard them yelping in pain, and then it was quiet. We sounded our alarm, which has a very loud siren, and as it was still going, we saw two people jumping over the fence and running away. We couldn’t find the dogs and they did not come to us when we called them. My husband and eldest son only found them early the next morning at the fence. They had both been stabbed in the neck and chest. Both of them were dead.” They also found a knife lying nearby.
She said the dogs had been part of the family, and like children to them. “They died protecting us. The people who killed them must pay for it.”
Kobus Brown, another Leeuwkuil resident, had a similar experience. “Major did not die straight away, but only the next day, due to his injuries,” Brown said.
He said the killing of his dog was a senseless act. “Whoever killed him is a coward. There is no way to describe the anger I feel,” he said.
In a third incident, a resident who does not wish to be identified, found her Staffordshire bull terrier seriously injured with stab wounds in the chest and side. Her dog received treatment and survived the attack.
In all of these incidents, the residents said the previous night there had been a ruckus, with their dogs barking viciously, but when they went to see what the problem was, they could not see anything.
None of the victims had reported these incidents to the police. Terblanche said she intended to report the matter to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) so that they could investigate a case of animal cruelty.
Westenburg police spokesperson, Capt Mohlaka Mashiane said it was imperative that the victims of such crimes reported such incidents to the police so that a case of damage to property could be opened. “We will not know there is a specific problem in a specific area unless it is reported,” he said.
He said the Leeuwkuil area had been stabilising over the past few months, but the police would increase their patrols in the area. He also urged all residents to join their local community policing forum.
