Man strangles family dog
2009-12-23 09:42
Pretoria - The police are looking for a 19-year-old man who allegedly strangled a Pretoria family's Dachshund named Ben.
While blood was coming out of Ben's mouth, the 19-year-old man, a neighbour of the Jones family of Ninapark, in northern Pretoria, apparently kept saying "Jammer, Oom" to Ken Jones.
According to Jones, they'd approached this man about three weeks ago to do some carpentry work for them. He's believed to be a former pupil of the Suiderberg school for pupils with learning disabilities.
When Jones, his wife, Hermien, and their 15-year-old daughter, also Hermien, arrived home from Johannesburg on Wednesday, Ben was wet.
He also had bruises on the inside of his back legs. The neighbour couldn't explain the wetness or the marks on Ben.
On Thursday Jones arrived home at about 09:00. Jones walked around the house to the back, where he found Britney, their other Dachshund, where she was sitting on a table.
Britney was also wet. Just like Ben, she was presumably pushed head-first into a fountain at the family's front door.
"I asked him [the neighbour] why Britney was wet," said Jones.
"He said the dog had bothered him.
"I told him the dogs are like my children and that he should rather go home.
"I started to look for Ben and found him with the big dog in his cage. Blood was coming out of his mouth. I grabbed him and raced to the vet.
"At the vet's office I phoned the man and asked what he'd done to Ben. He kept saying 'jammer, Oom'. I asked him again what he'd done to Ben. He said he'd choked the dog."
Ben was treated and taken home. Jones lay him down on the bed where he died about two hours later.
According to the post-mortem report, Ben had bruises under the skin across his chest area, as well as broken ribs which had pierced his lungs.
"The dog bled to death through the lungs," the report stated.
The neighbour has not once given an explanation for his alleged actions, said Jones's wife Hermien.
"Since Ben's death I have to listen to my daughter crying herself to sleep while he carries on with his life," she added.
Police spokesperson William Mahlaole said the police are looking for the suspect. He will be arrested on a charge of animal abuse.