Girl held for sex with dog

2005-04-05 15:33

Riot Hlatshwayo

Tzaneen - Three dogs were put down after villagers allegedly caught a 12-year-old girl having sex with one of the animals.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) in Tzaneen confirmed that the three dogs were put down last week Tuesday because they'd been beaten so badly by angry villagers.

"We had no alternative because they were in a really bad state," said Tzaneen SPCA chairperson, Ranate Prinsloo.

She said police had asked the SPCA to collect the animals from a village in the Bolobedu area after villagers threatened to kill the dogs themselves to protect their daughters.

Mopani police spokesperson Superintendent Moatshe Ngoepe reported that the incident began as a rumour.

"Villagers heard that the young girl always had sex with three male dogs, so they lay in wait to catch her in the act," he said.

They claim to have seen at least one dog and the girl going behind her family's house on Monday afternoon last week and "surprised" them.

Police were called and arrested the child for bestiality.

She appeared before the Bolobedu magistrate's court last Wednesday and the magistrate ordered that she be sent to a psychologist.

"We are expecting the psychologist's report soon," Ngoepe said.

Head of the Bethesda Christian Church, Dr Elijah Mtileni, believes demons are to blame and said only prayer and fasting would help the girl.

Afraid of getting Aids

Meanwhile, bestiality charges were provisionally withdrawn against a 19-year-old man from Mphakati near Malamulele last Tuesday.

He'd been accused of having sex with a goat.

Two years ago, another Limpopo man was jailed to 18 years for having sex with a goat in October 2002. He'd argued that he abstained from sex with humans because he was afraid of contracting HIV/Aids.

That same year a Bushbuckridge man committed suicide after he was caught having sex with a hen that later died. A young Botswana man who stayed in Limpopo was also accused of having sex with a donkey and littering the ground around it with condoms.

In October 2003, another man was jailed for 10 months after villagers caught him with two goats in Xihosana village near Malamulele.

- African Eye