*WARNING: Story contains graphic images.
A pit bull ripped off a woman’s ear in a gruesome attack in Wesbank on Sunday.
Monique Scott, 26, was mauled in the street by the big brown dog known as Giemba, who had bolted when his owner left the gate open.
The owner of the dog, Jeremiah September, has since asked the SPCA to remove it from the Maybrook Road property.
His mom Susara Speelman, 62, says: “I really feel bad about what happened and I take full responsibility for what happened. I had opened the gate for my other son and the dog slipped out.”
She says she heard voices outside her house just before 7am on Sunday and she got up to check it out.
“My son is using drugs and he steals from us every opportunity he gets, so I was worried that it was him in the yard stealing again,” she says.
“He was standing outside the yard with three other people. I asked him what he wanted and while I opened the gate for my son, the dog ran straight for the woman.”
Susara got emotional when she described the horrific incident to the Daily Voice.
“The dog must have first bit her in the leg because she fell and she was screaming the whole time she was on the ground.
“I ran to try and rescue her, I grabbed the dog’s collar and then pulled it.
“He was so resistant and at the time I did not realise that he had the woman’s ear in his mouth. I eventually managed to get him off and then I saw the ear. It was terrible, I really feel bad about what happened and will assist where I can.”
Monique’s mom Jean Scott says a neighbour informed her of what happened.
“I can’t walk properly so my husband went to the scene, he told me that her ear has been bitten off by a dog,” she says.
“They were taken to hospital by our neighbour who is a pastor and a photographer.
“They waited for more than two hours before they received assistance from the doctors at Delft Day Hospital.”
She says they have put the ear in a bag with ice and they are hoping doctors will be able to reattach it.
Jeremiah, who owns two pit bulls, says he has asked the SPCA to take two-year-old Giemba away as he had become “vicious, dangerous and uncontrollable”.
“After the woman was taken to hospital, I went to the police station and tried to find out what would happen to me. And they said I must wait until the victim is discharged (to see if she would lay a charge or not).
“I had been thinking about getting rid of Giemba, whom I’ve had since he was a puppy, because he was not taking commands from me anymore and I was afraid he might bite children.
“The SPCA came to fetch him yesterday and I said the best thing was for them to put him to sleep,” he adds.
SPCA Spokesperson Belinda Abraham says: “The dog has been surrendered by the owner into the care of the SPCA and was collected from Wesbank and admitted to our facility in Grassy Park.”
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za