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| Glocky |
Dear Readers,
After Glocky, an 8 year old Pit Bull, with a reputation for attacking other animals, savaged a much smaller dog on a Cape Town estate, its owner Jaric Tolken has been doing his best to convince everyone there that it is not dangerous.
The attack has split the residents on the estate’s WhatsApp group with some saying Glocky should be hounded out, while others believe it should stay. People are worried that a child could be its next victim as on any day unaccompanied little children can be seen skateboarding or just milling around the quiet streets of the estate.
While collecting information for this post I sent Jaric an email telling him that I proposed to write about what happened and I wanted to get both sides of the story.
I told him I believed his wife was due to have a baby shortly and “in view of this do you think it will be safe to still have this dog around. Only last week a toddler got killed by a pit bull in Pietermaritzburg. Isn’t there a strong chance that your pit bull will get jealous of the attention being given to your new baby?”
He replied: “Thanks for being reasonable and hearing both
sides.” He described his dog as “very friendly and loving towards humans.”
“I’m not concerned about Glocky,” he went on. “What kind of
person would I be if I kept a dog I was concerned about near my child!!!”
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| Glocky look-alike laughing it off |
Apart from a couple of pictures of Glocky - a black dog with a white patch on its chest - he attached a lot of other pit bulls that looked very similar and they were all being cuddled or lying next to small children. He was clearly trying to convince me that this was what his dog was like with children.
But when I asked him to give me the names and ages of the
children I got no reply. So I Googled ‘Pit Bull pictures with children’ and
there I found some of the ones he had sent me.
I emailed him saying: “Jaric am I correct in assuming that your dog is in none of these pictures of pits hulls with kids,
because you took them off the internet?”
That set him off. He
turned out to be just as unpredictable as his dog.
“Fuck off and have a nice day.” he replied. “Kind Regards, Jaric.”
It seems that Suzi Schalk hit the nail on the head on the WhatsApp when she had this to say about Jaric: “The dog frankly, is the way it is because of the owner, Pity he doesn’t see it that way.”
What she said after that about pit bulls being great dogs and other comments in favour of Jaric that made him thank her for her support was extremely odd. You see Suzi and he husband Willi, not only live on the state, but they are also estate agents who sell houses there. A vicious pit bull that is a danger is hardly a great selling point for anybody who might want to buy a house there.
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| Glocky's handiwork but fortunately his owner says he is "very friendly to humans" |
Not for the first time Glocky attacked another dog last
month after a painter left the property’s gate to the street open. He mauled
Bobby, a six year old Smoodle (Schnauzer/Poodle cross) and his owner Lesley
Lilley also got bitten trying to separate the two dogs. The vet’s bill to
stitch up Bobby’s wounds came to R5 608.
On WhatsApp Jaric undertook to cover the vet’s bill “no matter what the cost”, but he has been a bit slow in coming up with the money. At the time of posting this he had only paid R1 000, although the attack took place a month ago.
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| Isn't that sweet. Another Glocky look-alike |
Bradley Parsons maintained this was not an isolate incident
as Gloky had twice attacked his boxers a couple of years ago. At the time Jaric
initially agreed to pay the vet’s bill, but soon recanted. He told Bradley that
he got Glocky from a farm where it was being trained for dog fighting and he
was rehabilitating it.
Bradley believes the law should take its course.
Unfortunately there seems to be very little likelihood of that. Apparently the
attack was reported to the Police and all they did was to give Jarec a warning.
This is in spite of Glocky having bitten various dogs and being credited with
having killed several cats and even a porcupine, as the estate adjoins a
wetland area where there is a variety of small wild animals.
After another member of the WhatsApp group complained that he was paying for security when children could not play freely because of a dog, Suzi Schalk retorted: “That’s not the point and FYI children should not be roaming around freely in any estate, definitely not in these times, in my opinion.”
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| Another Glocky look-alike showing he is not only good with kids but with other dogs as well |
She then made out that she was a pit bull expert and that Bobby’s owner Lesley was actually to blame for what happened. “I know pit bulls believe me - they are to be handled carefully,” she maintained. “A stranger bear hugging a strange dog is idiotic. What on earth was this person thinking?”
If it had actually happened it was not half as idiotic as
what Suzi had to say. What did she expect Bobb’s owner to do when her dog was
attacked unexpected in the street while she was taking it for a walk. There was
nothing at all idiotic about her reaction. Most people would have done exactly
the same.
Lesley feels that Glocky needs to be re-homed far away or
put down as it is probably going to continue being a problem on the estate.
What do the rest of
you think?
Regards,
Jon,
another type of dog, one of the good ones – a Consumer Watchdog and a ‘Keep
Housing Estates Safe’ advocate.
