Earlier this week we were contacted by the police to help with a situation in Refilwe, where a man had been attacked by a Pitbull and they needed us to take the dog.
There have been a few of these cases recently and what inevitably happens is that the dog ends up being killed in a very cruel way. We drove as fast as we could, because even if this dog was a “man-eater”‘ we did not want him to be tortured.
We arrived at the house expecting to be confronted with a massive and ferocious dog with blood dripping from his mouth. Instead, we found a terrified little Amstaff tied and chained up in the weirdest way. We were told that the man who was attacked had four bites to his arms and legs and was taken to hospital.
This little one-year-old baby was traumatized and expecting another beating from the broomstick lying next to him, that had already been broken into four pieces. His body was full of welts and swelling from the beating he had endured before we arrived.
We knew we had to act fast as a crowd was gathering. We carefully approached him and he allowed that. We gently touched him and he allowed that. We started to cut the ropes and chains and he allowed that. We spoke in soft kind voices and he remained calm. We freed him from the many constraints and he showed no aggression towards us at all. Then we picked him up and still there was no aggression.
We quickly carried him to our vehicle and the growing crowd got out of our way.
He was now safe in our bakkie so we did a quick sweep of the premises to see the conditions he was living in. It all made more sense now, how something like this could have happened. He was living in a small, dark enclosure in a corner of the property, almost like a box. His home had scattered bricks and rocks as a floor and there was no food or water inside. No one could even tell us his name. We are quite sure that he must have been really badly provoked. We left, taking a four-month-old Foxi puppy with us as well who was living in the same conditions.
We arrived at Wet Nose, eager to see how this boy would react to our staff and other people. To our surprise, he jumped out of the bakkie on his lead, wagging his tail excitedly and saying hello to everyone he came across. He quickly found the cookie jar and went from person to person, greeting them, and asking for more cookies with his paw. What a gorgeous little man this was, by no means a “man-eater”.
It honestly seemed like he was aware that he had been rescued and it was the happiest day of his life. We decided to call him Jack Sparrow as he has a pirate patch over one eye. We will be monitoring him closely for behavioral issues and regaining his trust in humans. We are confident that his bruised body will soon heal and he will make someone who has respect for a dog an amazing family pet.
