CAPE TOWN - The Garden Route SPCA has euthanised three dogs that attacked and wounded numerous people in George on Monday.
The SPCA said the first call for assistance came at 4.28am after a man was attacked by the “aggressive” dogs at Steinhoff Industrial Park.
The next call came two minutes later reporting another two incidents of people who had been attacked by the same three dogs.
One incident was reported in Lancewood and another at Stanmar Motors.
“The inspector immediately attended to the call and searched high and low for the dogs, even with the assistance of the ER24 ambulance, but despite their best efforts, the dogs were not spotted anywhere at that stage,” said the SPCA.
After 7am, they were alerted by the fire brigade that the dogs were spotted on the N2 running towards Mossel Bay and that they had just attacked another man.
“The inspector rushed out to the scene and called the inspectorate team for assistance, the inspector approached the dogs to try and lure them into the vehicle but the dogs tried to attack the inspector multiple times,” they said.
Another member of the public was attacked by the dogs as he approached the main road.
“A very traumatised inspector witnessed the horrible ordeal of all three dogs on top of the man, kicking and screaming to get them away from him. Another member stepped out of their vehicle and the dogs were distracted and approached again.
“The dogs then ran into the bushes on the right-hand side of the N2,” the SPCA said.
A social media post was circulated calling for information about the whereabouts of the dogs.
"We followed tip-offs from the community and managed to trace the owner of the dogs. The owner managed to get the dogs into the SPCA vehicle and they were brought in. After numerous people’s lives were endangered and due to the severity of the injuries caused by the dogs, the very hard but responsible decision was made by the owner to humanely euthanise the three dogs.
“We are all incredibly traumatised and upset by the incident, and our thoughts and prayers go out to those bitten by the dogs and we understand the immense trauma you are going through.
“We will never understand what may have triggered these dogs to do what they did and it is unfortunate that they had to lose their lives because of it,” the SPCA said.
Cape Times