Killer dogs back home after SPCA wall scaled
A MONTH after Haidee Pook was killed by a pair of pitbulls in a Baysville backyard, the dogs’ owner, Travis Wade, has his dogs back.
Police spokesman Captain Mluleki Mbi confirmed the two pitbulls were back in Wade’s care.
This came after the SPCA was broken into on Wednesday night and the dogs removed from the kennels they had been occupying since Pook’s death on July 17.
The SPCA’s Lionel Taylor laid a charge of breaking and entering and trespassing after Wade allegedly removed the padlocks from the kennels and scaled a two-metre wall to free them, but yesterday Mbi said police had decided not to charge Wade.
“The matter of whether to charge him or not is being taken to the state prosecutor.”
According to the SPCA, the dogs were removed from Wade’s home after Pook was mauled to death so as to make it safe for police to investigate. They were being kept under lock and key at the SPCA pending a police inquest.
But yesterday Taylor said he could not insist the dogs be returned to the SPCA because he had no police order to hold the dogs.
Wade’s lawyer, Henry van Breda, said he had met with the investigating officer of the case yesterday and that the two pitbulls were “in a safe place”, but declined to comment further.
Meanwhile Facebook has been awash with comments about the dogs being taken from the SPCA.
Tronk Toe wanted to know why the “police are dragging their heels”.
“Surely it can’t take this long to come to a conclusion as to what to do with the dogs! I still think these dogs can be changed in their ways and don’t need to be put down, but they cannot go back to Travis Wade.”