Son's dogs rip out dad's throat

2006-03-23 22:32

Pieter Jordaan

Johannesburg - "It seemed as if the man's throat had been cut with a bread knife and there were deep bite marks to his face, arms and legs," is how a man's fatal dog-attack injuries were described.

Llewellyn Venter, 29, was describing how his elderly neighbour, Frederik Wolmarans, 83, had been mauled by his son's three boerboel dogs about 09:30 on Thursday.

Venter, who lives on a smallholding near Pinehaven Country Estate near Muldersdrift, said he was at home when a woman on a neighbouring smallholding started screaming.

"My mother looked over the wall and saw the man lying on the ground, being attacked by the dogs. She shouted at me to bring the gun.

"I grabbed my 9mm pistol and jumped over the wall and went closer.

"One of the dogs rushed at me and I shot it between the eyes right in front of me," said Venter.

The dogs fought occasionally

He said Theo Wolmarans, the victim's son and owner of the dogs, arrived and chased off the two other dogs.

"My dad ran to the man's aid. It seemed as if the man's whole body had been stabbed full of holes with a chisel.

"It's horrible to think the man was lying there dead, just minutes after the woman had started screaming," said Venter.

Venter said: "Apparently, the dogs were fighting and the man had beaten them with a sjambok. Maybe that is when they attacked him.

"The dogs have never been a problem. Now and again, I heard them fighting, but they were usually brought under control with the sjambok," he said.

Wolmarans jun apparently asked Venter to shoot the other dogs too, but Venter didn't want to because "he didn't want to get into trouble".

Captain Paula Nothnagel said nobody had been charged in connection with the attack and the case was being investigated.

- Beeld