Dog dragged by car at 30km/h
2006-02-19 22:28
Pretoria - A man from Faerie Glen in Pretoria might face a prison sentence after dragging a dog with a nylon rope at 30km/h behind his Mercedes-Benz.
"It was the ugliest thing I have ever seen," said Kim Leslie, who saw it happening.
"He first dragged the dog down Manitoba Drive [in Faerie Glen] on its feet.
"I turned my car around and followed him. The dog fell over and the man dragged her while she was lying on her back and rolling all over the road.
"The worst was that the man was smiling all the time," he said.
Eventually, the man stopped in Kentucky Street, where Leslie and other witnesses confronted him.
Leslie said: "The man just shrugged his shoulders as if he couldn't understand what the all fuss was about."
Leslie told the Wetnose animal-rescue centre and the SPCA about the incident, and took the dog, Lamina, to a vet.
Dog's paw pads worn away
A charge of animal abuse was laid against the man with Garsfontein police.
Diale Ratsela of the SPCA said he suspected the man was angry about the dog leaving his yard all the time and wanted to teach her a lesson by dragging her back home.
Dr Pieter Bosch, a veterinarian at Glen Animal Clinic in Faerie Glen, said the pads on the dog's paws were worn away.
When Beeld visited the animal clinic, there were large, bloody wounds on her sides where the skin had been rubbed off.
"There were also severe bruises on her neck where the rope had been tied," said Bosch.
Just a question of time
Trudie Wessels, director of Wetnose, said it was clear that the dog had been abused in the past.
"It was clear that these were old wounds, that it was not the first time," confirmed Bosch.
He expected the dog to recover within a month.
"I is only a matter of strong antibiotics, pain killers and cortisone for a month.
"Fortunately, the tissue underneath a dog's feet recovers quickly," he said.
She would afterwards be taken to Wetnose for adoption.