Residents from Ekurhuleni informal settlement call for action after toddler killed in dog attack

JOHANNESBURG - Residents from Marathon informal settlement in the City of Ekurhuleni are calling for action following a brutal dog attack which claimed a toddler’s life.

Reports said on Friday that a three-year-old girl was walking alone through a narrow passage in the settlement on her way to visit her grandfather when a number of dogs attacked her.

It's understood that following the attack on Friday, members of the community took matters into their own hands, demolishing the shacks believed to belong to the owners of the dogs.

On Monday, ward councillor Geoffrey Mthembu said he would visit the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to request urgent intervention on the handling and removal of the dogs.

Mthembu said this was the third incident where the same dogs attacked children.

He has also called on the relevant departments, including animal control, environmental health and community safety, in the city to address the matter urgently.