Bruce and Richard Ryan, the owners of the pitbull that was reported attacking its female owner, is unhappy about the way the incident was portrayed in the media based on the SPCA’s account of events.
Initially SPCA Inspector Charmaigne Joubert claimed that the dog dragged Eleanor Ryan through the house after attacking a neighbour.
Ryan (snr) explains, “My neighbour has to walk past our house on bin day (Pikitup’s collection day) and this usually makes the dog bark. On 18 July my wife was late to take out our bin. The neighbour came over and urged her to bring the bin quickly. Being in a hurry, my wife left the gate slightly ajar and the dog came out and attacked our neighbour, but it was only a superficial bite,” says Ryan.
“When my wife tried to help the neighbour the dog turned on her. This is normal with any dog that is in a fight. A man heard the screams, came over and shot my dog. It then ran back into the yard and into the house. The dog never dragged my wife into the house. She is slightly overweight plus we have stairs leading up to the house. It would have been impossible to drag her into the house,” says Ryan angrily.
“I have at least three witnesses who can attest to the fact that my mom was fetched by the ambulance in the street, exactly where the dog left her,” confirms Ryan (jnr).
“The blood that the SPCA photographed in the house and claim to be my wife’s was actually that of my dog.
“Claiming that the dog is extremely aggressive is a stupid observation. Any injured animal becomes aggressive. The nonsense story that my dog was a problem dog that has been reported before also is not true. People complained about a dog barking, but it was actually the dog across the street,” Ryan explains.
He says that he found it suspicious that when he got to the SPCA, they immediately showed him the bullet as to prove something and then charged him over R300 to put down the dog. He says that he does not know whether the dog died naturally or if it was actually euthanised.
Joubert now claims that she never said that the dog dragged the victim through the house or made the dog out to be vicious. Furthermore, strangely, she claimed that she never released the photos to the media yet the Record was supplied with the photos by the SPCA.
