Pit bull victims urged to sue state
Victims of pit bull attacks have been urged to sue the government for not doing enough to protect them.
The Sizwe Kupelo Foundation, which launched a nationwide petition last year calling on the government to ban people from keeping pit bulls as pets, said the state was slow to act.
‘We cannot wait any longer when people continue to die,’ community activist Sizwe Kupelo is quoted as saying in a Saturday Star report.
His petition, which garnered 139 000 signatures, was handed to the government. He said he knew of a number of law firms that had been inundated with requests for legal representation after pit bull attacks.
Kupelo urged the government to have an awareness campaign about the dangers of the dogs and take up its responsibility to save lives.
‘Our issue is not only with pit bulls. As an owner of a power breed myself (a boerboel) we also need to be regulated because we are like people in possession of loaded guns. The same regulation imposed on gun owners needs to be imposed on us.’
The Pit Bull Federation of SA, which promotes American pit bull terriers, said that for more than 100 years, the dogs had been bred to fight other animals and not to guard or protect humans.
‘So now you sit with a dog that has the potential to kill and you teach it to be aggressive towards humans. People are using our dogs for the wrong purposes. This is a stunning family dog if you have a properly bred dog that comes from the correct gene pool and from a respected breeder,’ said the organisation’s Lehanda Rheeder.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
