Dog whisperer rules, OK?
2007-04-16 23:35
Virginia Keppler
Pretoria - It took an extremely patient man from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals about half an hour to coax a boerbull out of his hostage-taker role.
The dog had held a suburb hostage for several hours by that time.
Finally, with a whispered "Kom skattie", the SPCA's Diale Ratsele stroked the big dog's back and gently loaded him into their van.
He calmed the dog down after residents had been trapped on their properties for about four hours in fear of being attacked.
It appeared the dog could not get back into its property in Trouw Street, Capital Park, after being locked out on the street on Monday morning.
Put down water for him
Helen Louw, a neighbour, fed the boerbull biltong, bacon, Lemon Cream biscuits and some of her own little dog's food to try to keep him calm.
She also put a bowl of water down for him.
Louw said the dog had barked at her when she went to open the gate just before 08:00 to go to work.
"If I touched the chain on my gate, he'd rush at me. I phoned the SPCA and when they didn't respond, I called Beeld."
On the other side of the road, Erika Campbell and her six-year-old grandchild, Charlize Minnaar, also could not get out.
"When I wanted to open the gate, the dog stood and barked at me as if he wanted to bite me," said Campbell.
The two women stood at their gates and called out to passers-by to turn back.
Louw said: "It was quite chaotic, especially because several schoolchildren were walking down the street. Luckily, we could warn everyone in time."
When Beeld's reporter and photographer arrived at 11:30, they called the SPCA to find out what had happened to Louw's complaint.
SPCA inspector Ratsele responded within 10 minutes and it took him half an hour to calm the big dog, muzzle him and load him into the van.
Confused and scared
"Come, skattie," he whispered to the dog, "let's get into the bakkie."
Then he picked him up like a lamb and loaded him in.
Louw said she thought the dog was just very confused and scared "because he didn't know how to get back inside his yard with his companion".
Ratsela left a letter for the dog's owners to collect him at the SPCA in Silverton.
- Beeld