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Boy, 4, attacked by pit bull
News24 ^

Posted on 06/23/2009 11:38:59 AM PDT by Chet 99

Arisja Jacobs

Secunda – A 4-year-old boy had parts of his scalp ripped off, his ear nearly torn off, and his left arm broken, when he was attacked by what is believed to be a pit bull terrier on Friday.

While the owners of the house where the attack took place apparently stood by and watched, Fanie van Rensburg, a neighbour of little Xander van Zyl, managed to save the child from its jaws.

“Man, what a horrible thing. The dog was dragging the boy back and forth, picking him up and letting go over and over. Each time the little boy reached out for me to pick him up, the dog would take hold again,” Van Rensburg said on Sunday.

Xander’s mother, Cornel van Zyl, said the family had only been living in Secunda for four months.

“Xander and his little sister, Shantelize, 2, were playing in our yard. I went to the bathroom and while I was there, Shantelize came to me in tears, saying her brother was being bitten by a dog.”

Van Zyl suspects that Xander climbed through the palisade fencing around their house to join one of his friends across the road. The dog, which belongs to a family member of Xander’s little friend, was kept in that yard.

Naked and covered in blood

“I found Xander naked and covered in blood in the kitchen while the people were just standing there staring at him. I grabbed my child and screamed at them to bring a towel and phone the ambulance. I had to give them my cellphone since they didn’t have any airtime.

“The woman gave me a small blue towel which I wrapped around Xander. I held him tightly so he wouldn’t lose more blood,” said Van Zyl.

“If it wasn’t for that man (Van Rensburg), my child would be dead.”

Van Rensburg’s son Jan, a paramedic, took over from Van Zyl and started to clean Xander’s wounds.

A friend of the Van Zyls, Bernadette Nortjé, also showed up and tried to comfort her hysterical friend and little Shantelize. “She was crying and kept repeating that her brother was bleeding.”

Nortjé accompanied Xander in the ambulance. “I thought he was going to die there because he was so cold. His eyes rolled back and he was very drowsy,” she said.

Xander was admitted to the Highveld Medi-Clinic in Trichardt. According to his father, Michael van Zyl, he will have surgery this week.

Dog to be put down

The dog will be put down by the SPCA on Monday. “The brain must be sent to Onderstepoort for rabies tests,” said Marilé Nieuwoudt of the SPCA. While the brown dog looks like a pit bull terrier, Nieuwoudt was not yet able to confirm the breed.

The Van Zyls are considering legal action against the dog’s owners. They have no medical aid, and Xander’s father’s employer paid for his hospital admission.

Beeld made several phone calls to the dog’s owner, HF Koen, but received no answer. The people who live on the premises where the dog was kept were also not available for comment.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: dogofpeace; pitbull
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1 posted on 06/23/2009 11:38:59 AM PDT by Chet 99
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Comment #2 Removed by Moderator

To: Chet 99
While the owners of the house where the attack took place apparently stood by and watched

WTF?

3 posted on 06/23/2009 11:42:06 AM PDT by SIDENET ("Join me or die. Can you do any less?" -Mr. Sparkle)
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To: Chet 99

Another pit bull story by Chet 99. What a surprise.


4 posted on 06/23/2009 11:43:59 AM PDT by kik5150
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To: Chet 99

While I understand that every person reacts to emergencies in different ways, from paralysis to taking action, this is egregious. Thank God for the neighbor and cellphones!


5 posted on 06/23/2009 11:44:03 AM PDT by NoPrisoners ("When in the course of human events...")
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To: Chet 99

Do you ever think about anything besides dogs? Do you think you will change any minds? Do you have national statistics showing the rates of attacks/deaths by dog type?


6 posted on 06/23/2009 11:45:16 AM PDT by libbylu
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To: SIDENET

and they didn’t have any airtime. well la ti da, so they’d have had to pay a lot for a minute or two.
How terrible. Sue them too, for felonious stupidity.


7 posted on 06/23/2009 11:46:09 AM PDT by Shimmer1 (Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.)
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To: Chet 99
he was attacked by what is believed to be a pit bull terrier on Friday.

Or it may have been a monitor lizard or possibly a rabid manatee.

8 posted on 06/23/2009 11:46:20 AM PDT by humblegunner
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To: Chet 99

Well, gee; if the dog LOOKS like a pit-bull then there can be no doubt! It must BE a pit-bull!


9 posted on 06/23/2009 11:46:32 AM PDT by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: SIDENET
WTF?

Similar to what happened here in Atlanta several years ago. A woman's pit bull was attacking a child while the owner just stood there and watched. A neighbor went in his house and got a .357 and shot the dog. At that point the woman went into a frenzy and attacked the neighbor screaming "don't hurt my dog. Don't hurt my dog." So he shot her too. He was not charged. She was charged with assault

10 posted on 06/23/2009 11:48:00 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
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To: Chet 99

I have been told, repeatedly, that attacks like this are rare.


11 posted on 06/23/2009 11:48:51 AM PDT by SJSAMPLE
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To: Chet 99

Looks like this took place in South Africa...?


12 posted on 06/23/2009 11:49:08 AM PDT by randog (Tap into America!)
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To: FrPR

Heh.


13 posted on 06/23/2009 11:49:23 AM PDT by randog (Tap into America!)
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To: humblegunner

Or an acorn worker looking for their pie.


14 posted on 06/23/2009 11:50:06 AM PDT by WakeUpAndVote
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To: Chet 99

The dog lovers on this forum seem to like pit bulls more than they like children. As W. C. Fields once said, “This morning I saw a dog bite a child and the child kick the dog, which shows neither dogs nor children are as bad as I thought they were.”


15 posted on 06/23/2009 11:50:36 AM PDT by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government,)
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To: WayneS
Well, gee; if the dog LOOKS like a pit-bull then there can be no doubt! It must BE a pit-bull!

It was probably a Golden Retriever.

16 posted on 06/23/2009 11:52:13 AM PDT by Chet 99
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To: randog

Looks like this took place in South Africa...?

____

Yeah, everyone’s name is with the last seven letters of the alphabet.


17 posted on 06/23/2009 11:52:44 AM PDT by WakeUpAndVote
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To: kik5150

It’s the canine monsters making the news, not Chet.


18 posted on 06/23/2009 11:53:02 AM PDT by Moonman62 (The issue of whether cheap labor makes America great should have been settled by the Civil War.)
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To: libbylu; Chet 99

Do you have national statistics showing the rates of attacks/deaths by dog type?””

If he/she doesn’t stats are available from the American Vet Med Assoc (AVMA). Pits are by centuries of breeding, the worst offenders of serious, often lethal, attacks.


19 posted on 06/23/2009 11:54:35 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot ((Freedom's Precious Metals: Gold, Silver and Lead))
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To: SJSAMPLE

“.......attacks like this are rare.”

Yeah, but are they safe?


20 posted on 06/23/2009 11:54:57 AM PDT by BnBlFlag (Deo Vindice/Semper Fidelis "Ya gotta saddle up your boys; Ya gotta draw a hard line")
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