More than a dozen dogs have allegedly been poisoned on people’s properties in Francis Road, Muldersdrift – with a lethal concoction of what is known as two-step poison.
On 28 September, local resident Willie Brummer was woken up at night when he heard his three dogs howling and several more in the neighbourhood barking but did not think much of the chaos.
“I didn’t take it too seriously at the time but when I woke up the next morning my dogs were dead. When I inspected the rest of the property, I discovered a hole that had been cut out of the fence, clearly from the previous night.”
The residents of Muldersdrift are in an uproar because of the worsening criminal activity which is being directed to their animals. They believe their dogs are being poisoned because they warn their owners when there are perpetrators on their properties.
In Brummer’s case, his dogs were sprayed with poison and he only realised it when it was too late and they were dead.
The most common method is two-step poison, which is mixed with rat poison. The tasteless and odourless mixture is put into the dogs’ food, causing severe stomach pains for the animals and ultimately a very painful death.
Sharon Malan’s three dogs were poisoned on 16 September. She says she heard noises outside her gate in the middle of the night and when she switched on the light, whoever was out there, ran off.
“I heard the dogs barking and that is when I also heard the noises outside my gate. The next morning my labrador puppy didn’t come to the door like it usually does and I noticed my Jack Russels lying on the grass – they were already dead and the lock at the gate had been broken.”
Malan says she has added a security alarm and beams outside her house since the attacks.
The residents have organised neighbourhood watches with Drift Reaction cc and have started putting together treatment kits to deal with poisoned animals. The kits would give the owner a 20- to 30-minute window to get their dogs to the vet.
Jacques Treptow from Drift Reaction cc says, “We conduct regular operations because there are attacks in Muldersdrift every single night. We use Whatsapp groups to notify and inform the public and we are going to increase our vehicles in the areas to increase the visibility of our actions.”
