Family shocked after farmer kills their invading dog

AN EAST London family was horrified to find their dead puppy hanging from a fence post with its throat slit last Friday.

Errol Petzer filed a charge of animal cruelty at the Kidd’s Beach police station the next morning.

Petzer, who lives with his wife Miekie and their daughter Tanya on a smallholding at Christmas Rock, said neighbour Russell Webber slaughtered their Misty and suspended her mutilated body from a fence post at the entrance to their farm.

But, although Webber admitted to killing their pet, he said he had every right to “euthanase rogue dogs” on his property and that he caught Misty and two of the Petzers’ other dogs mauling his goats.

The Petzer family conceded their dogs may have left their property, but they were appalled by the way their 14-month-old dog had been killed, saying it was brutal.

SPCA East London general manager Allen Westerberg was “sickened”.

He said an autopsy showed the dog had a gunshot wound but it was difficult to be sure if that was the cause of death.

“Its throat was removed. It is not something we see often.”

A furious Tanya Petzer said Webber had arrived at their farm at 10am last Friday morning. “He pulled our gate off its socket and came storming in asking if we had a gun and saying he wanted to shoot my dogs because they had killed his goat.”

She said this had upset her sister’s two children and their two friends, who are all under the age of 10.

“He started pushing his finger into my forehead and cheek,” said Errol Petzer.

“He told me he had one of our dogs at his farm.”

Tanya said when Webber left, the family realised Misty was missing and called the police. “They got here at 3.30pm and said they would go to [Webber’s] farm and find our dog.”

She said when her sister Sonja arrived soon after, she was horrified to find Misty’s body hanging from the fence post.

“Her throat was so badly slit that her head was flapping. Butchering a dog like this is inhumane. It is a brutal act of cruelty,” she said.

Miekie said: “Misty used to sleep in a box by my bed. She was so sweet.”

Webber said he had approached the Petzers in the past about their dogs harassing his goats. He said the dogs had killed a ewe and two lambs earlier this year and that he had opened a case with the Kidd’s Beach police at the time.

“I warned them that if their dogs got out again they would be shot. Then on Friday three of their dogs came into the kraal and one of the ewe’s private parts was mauled and her back legs crippled and another’s ears were bitten. The goats were crying and they were ripping and tearing at them. Two dogs ran away, but I put the third one down. I don’t want to elaborate how I did it. It was humanely put down.

“What is classified as mutilation? I’m an animal lover. Sheep and goats are slaughtered at an abattoir. Is that mutilation?”

He denied hanging the dog “on a pole” but instead said he “put it at [their] entrance”.

Westerberg said farmers had the right to kill marauding animals but they should not suffer in the process.

“Farmers can [also] contain them and ask us to come and collect them. That is what we are here for.”

Police spokeswoman Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala confirmed the animal cruelty charge had been laid.