A few days ago, I was disturbed and traumatised by dogfighting I witnessed in an informal settlement in Ivory Park near Midrand. This happened just a few months after witnessing an incident in which a puppy was mourning its mother in Protea Glen, Soweto. After the puppy incident, I wrote a column expressing how my love for dogs was gradually developing.
In that column, I explained how the pet had to go through the death of its mother without the involvement of its owner. Its mother’s carcass was on a dumping site and the puppy had spent three days camping next to it hoping that she would miraculously wake up, but to no avail. I know some black people from rural areas or informal settlements usually don’t care much about pets, especially dogs.
Yet many of them keep them in their homes just to protect them against intruders. ALSO READ: Durban and Coast SPCA secures first conviction for 2025 When I witnessed the Ivory Park dogfighting match, I was visiting a friend in Midrand and we decided to go to a park at the informal settlement. Remember, this bloody dogfighting incident comes at a time when I am still trying to deal with the trauma caused by the mourning puppy.
To be honest, watching dogs fighting until their bodies turned red due to the sustained injuries was horrifying. The match was organised by two young men, whose ages ranged between 18 and 21, and the spectators were also young people. To make this worse, this brutality happened on a beautiful Sunday morning, whi.
