A mute three-year-old boy has been dragged out of his house and mauled to death by a neighbour’s pit bull.
Family members of little Luqmaan Jardien say when they woke up, the dog already had its jaws round the toddler’s throat in the backyard of their Hanover Park home.
The female relative, who asked not to be named, said the hond was staying with them “for protection” and Luqmaan would play with it.
But on Monday morning, she says the dog inexplicably jumped in through the window and attacked the child.
The woman says the family didn’t hear Luqmaan’s cries because he couldn’t speak: “We didn’t hear anything because he is mute like his parents. He couldn’t scream for help.”
She says when she got up, she was alerted by her younger sister that the boy was in trouble: “My sister went to the toilet and opened the window and that is when she called out to me.
“I went and when I looked out the bathroom window, I saw Luqmaan lying there and the dog was busy biting him in his neck.”
She ran out to call for help.
“I went to call his cousin and called my dad, they ran out to the back,” she explains.
“When the cousin tried to pick him up, the dog attacked him also.”
The woman says they managed to free Luqmaan but when his cousin went inside, the ferocious dog followed.
“The dog tried to get inside the house, but my dad and cousin pushed the door. But the dog still tried to force its way in, its head was caught (in the door). They didn’t let go of the door and that is maybe when it suffocated and later died.”
She says they took Luqmaan to Heideveld Day Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. Luqmaan’s emotional father wants to warn parents about the dangers of keeping dogs.
“I just don’t want the same thing to happen to other children,” a relative interpreted to the Daily Voice.
“Children must stay away from dogs. I love my son and I’m going to miss him a lot because we were always together.”
Police spokesman FC van Wyk says they are investigating an inquest.