Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Pit bulls: are they friends or foes?
THE GOVERNMENT will have the final say on whether or not pit bulls should be banned as pets after two children died in attacks within weeks of each other.
The issue became a national talking point when the Sizwe Kupelo Foundation started a campaign after 10-year-old Storm Nuku was killed by his family’s two pit bulls in Gelvandale in the Eastern Cape in September.
Kupelo said that their campaign gained traction instantly, followed by a slump and was again revived when 8-year-old Olebogeng Mosime from Bloemfontein was killed by his neighbour’s pit bulls last week. The dogs had jumped over a fence to attack Mosime.
Since the latest child death, the owners of at least 50 pit bulls voluntarily surrendered their dogs to the care of the SPCA in Bloemfontein.
Every year dozens of men, women and children are mauled and left disfigured if they survive pit bull attacks.
Experts say pit bulls are starved, tortured, drugged, sometimes even cut open to become drug mules, but mostly are forced to participate in dog fights where the stakes are high and death is inevitable.
Authorities say figures on dog attacks are unknown because many cases go unreported and money is often used to buy silence.
Now there is a divide between those who want the dog breed to be banned as pets, and those who oppose it because they say the dogs are not to blame for the attacks.
Both sides have started online petitions hoping to capture as much support as possible and the signatures are expected to be submitted to Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thoko Didiza for a decision.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) says it does not support a ban.
NSPCA special investigations unit manager Nazareth Appalsamy said: “We do not support the banning of any breed, we never have and we never will.”
Appalsamy said they would support stronger regulations for dogs regarded as power breeds, like pit bulls, Rottweilers, bull terriers and boerboels.
This, he said, would help the animals and people when they were hurt by the dogs.
He said Didiza had the power to make regulations in terms of Section 10 of the Animals Protection Act.
The regulations could include licences, micro-chipping the dogs so owners could be found and help control the breeding, which was “out of control” because people were only interested in making money.
The dogs should also be sterilised so they are calmer and more controllable and this would also take away their urge to go in search of mating partners, said Appalsamy.
He said while many people argued pit bulls were placid, they were bred to fight and owners had to ensure they were kept in proper enclosures.
“There are lots of irresponsible owners and breeders and we don’t know when an animal will turn on a human,” he said.
Appalsamy said pit bull breeding was a major problem in KwaZulu-Natal and recently a Pietermaritzburg man was found with 17 dogs on one property. Some were taken away but the others remained in his custody.
Appalsamy said dog fights were an ongoing problem and hard to quell because it happened late at night in remote areas. He said big money exchanged hands, from R2 000 per dog to get into a fight and more than R100 000 in prize money, depending on the level of the fight.