Woman lays charge after dogs attack

HOWICK police have opened a docket after an attack by five dogs on a woman in the Midlands town, according to his partner.

Nikki Brighton had been walking her dog, an Africanis called Dizzy, in the street early on Thursday when the pack went for them, causing her to land up in Howick Private Hospital for treatment to bite wounds on her face and neck.

Dizzy required stitches at the vet. “I have just got back from Howick SAPS where a docket has been opened,” Brighton’s partner, Paul van Uytrecht, said yesterday afternoon.

“Three of the five dogs have been surrendered to the SPCA and the objective is to now get the remaining two before anyone is killed,” he said.

Brighton, a well-known Midlands education and environmental activist, speaking from her hospital bed, said laying a charge was not something she would normally do, but she had heard the dogs had also bitten children in the past.

She added that they appeared to come from two different properties.

Dizzy has already returned home from the vet.

Brighton reportedly went the extra mile to protect her pet during the attack, crouching down in a foetal position to defend it.

“We were on our early morning walk before light, which is something we have always enjoyed since moving into town a year ago.”

They had previously lived in the Dargle range.

Neither Mgeni SPCA nor the police had commented by the time of going to press.

KwaZulu-Natal has been dogged with canine problems for the past three consecutive weeks with news of rabies cases in Gillitts and New Germany in the Highway area, and a 6-yearold child dying of rabies at Enseleni, near Richards Bay.