No outcome on child, bull terrier and chicken leg
THE case of the chicken thigh, the child, the bull terrier and where it all went wrong has still not reached finality in the courts.
It was two years ago that Eli Barnard (then 4 years old) was mauled by a bull terrier that tried to grab a chicken thigh out of his mouth. Now Eli’s father, Marius Barnard, is claiming R322 000 in damages from the dog’s owner, Marthinus Ras.
Barnard, who lives on a plot north of Pretoria, told the court that Ras knew his dog was vicious. He said Ras had a duty to ensure the dog could not escape from his backyard.
Ras, on the other hand, said the child teased the dog with the chicken thigh by waving it in front of it and when the child thrust the meat into his mouth the dog continued to grab the piece of chicken, which resulted in the mauling.
“It was simply an error of judgement on the part of the dog,” Ras told Judge Johan Louw.
His dog, which he has since sold, was not vicious at all, and was “well behaved and friendly”, he said.
In May 2014, Barnard rented a cottage on Ras’s plot, near the main house. The two properties were divided by a wooden fence. Barnard said the dog escaped by forcing his way under the fence.
Ras argued in court it was impossible as the gap between the fence and the ground was about 10cm – far too small for a big dog to slide under.
Eli’s minder, Johanna Baloyi, testified that on May 16, 2014 she and the child sat on the porch of the cottage, eating chicken. The male dog, together with the bitch, were at the time in Ras’s backyard.
Baloyi said when she looked up the male dog was next to them and the dog was trying to snatch the chicken out of Eli’s hand. At that point Eli instead thrust the meat into his mouth, which prompted the dog to bite him in the face.
Eli’s father, who is wheelchair bound, was in the house at the time. He said he heard the child and Baloyi scream. When he rushed outside he saw his child’s face covered in blood. Baloyi managed to pull the dog off the child before rushing Eli to hospital. He was bitten in the face, leaving him with severe scarring across his nose, eyes and face.
Baloyi said that she had in the past also been bitten by one of Ras’s dogs. Ras denied this. He also said someone must have left the gate between the two premises open on the day of the incident.
The court reserved judgment.