DJANGO, a four-year-old pitbull was found chained up at a KwaMakhutha home four days after he went missing from his Amanzimtoti home.
As relieved as the owners are to have their boy home, the increasing number of dog thefts locally is instilling fear and insecurity among pet owners.
“We noticed Django was missing on Sunday evening, 29 October at around 7pm,” said his owner, who asked to remain unnamed. “He is friendly and usually with us when we’re home, so for him to not be around was out of the ordinary.”
Aside from making trips to the Amanzimtoti SPCA on a near-daily basis, the devastated owners also put up many posters all over Amanzimtoti and posted on Facebook pages and Amanzimtoti Trader, offering a R1,000 reward for Django’s return.
“It was a poster that we put up at a spaza shop up the R603 that was noticed,” he said. “A man contacted me, saying he recognised the missing dog and knew where he was.”
The owner met with the man as soon as he could. “We met at a garage up the R603 and went to KwaMakhutha police station. We managed to get a policeman to come along with us to the house. The officer went onto the property where Django was chained up. There was no-one at home. Identifying Django with the poster, he was unchained and handed over to me to be taken home,” he said.
Read also: Dog theft increases in Illovo
Having found Django and now having him back at home with his fellow small-breed dogs has warmed the hearts of his previously devastated owners.
However, the fact remains that cases of dog theft continue to grow by the day, and too often justice isn’t served in the case of a stolen dog.
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