Pit bulls maul alleged thief to death
A shocking 8-minute long video of a man being mauled to death by two pit bulls in their owner’s yard has gone viral.
|||Cape Town - A video of a man being mauled to death by two pit bulls has gone viral on social media.
Police who arrived at the scene shot and killed one of the animals, leaving friends to rescue a bleeding Wayne “Wayntjie” Kayster.
Kayster was rushed to hospital, but died later on Monday night.
Some residents in Lotus River claim Kayster was a known thief, who had been trying to break into the house in First Avenue while the owners were away.
However, his distraught family says the 35-year-old drug addict was merely looking for scrap when the dogs attacked him and ripped out his throat.
The eight-minute long video, taped by a resident, shows Kayster being bitten and mauled by two large pit bulls.
Kayster lies on the ground, trying in vain to fight off the animals, a brown male and a white pregnant pit bull.
Kayster’s friends and family, alerted by his cries for help but too scared to go into the yard, can be seen sitting on the vibracrete fence, hurling abuse and trying to scare the animals off with sticks and stones, but the dogs would not stop attacking him.
At one point, the male dog grabs a limp Kayster by the neck, and a woman can be heard hysterically screaming: “Hy is by die gorrel!” (He is at his throat.)
Another man shouts: “Wayntjie lê stil! Hosh, daai man is klaar.” (Waynetjie, keep still! Oh no, that man is finished.)
Police arrived on the scene and moments later a gunshot goes off, the male dog whimpers, and collapses next to Kayster.
A man jumps over the fence and pulls Kayster away, while his friend Bernadette Hendricks rushes to his side.
When the Daily Voice visited the house on Wednesday, the SPCA were also there looking for the owners, who were not home.
Only the white pit bull could be seen in the yard. The animal became aggressive and tried to attack the Daily Voice team.
Kayster’s shocked sister, Theresa Demas, 39, denies claims that her brother was a thief: “I was at the owner’s house [on Tuesday night] and he said Wayne was at his home looking for scrap, as he usually does.
“He told Wayne there was nothing.
“People say when Wayne was peeping over the wall, the dogs dragged him over.
“Wayne has been (hustling) since he was at school and he is a drug addict.
“He also cuts grass at people’s homes. He would not steal... he doesn’t have a criminal record.”
Kayster’s family now want the female dog to be put down.
“It was just horrible what happened,” Demas said.
“Wayne had pieces of flesh missing. The police shot the one dog but why is the other one still allowed to stay there?”
Hendricks said they could only watch in horror as her friend was being ripped apart.
“It was like Wayne gave up at one stage because he was exhausted.”
Bernadette Abraham, of The Cape of Good Hope SPCA, says they have viewed the footage and are looking into the incident.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Andrè Taut says an inquest docket has been opened for investigation.
Daily Voice
* IOL has chosen not to publish the video here due to its graphic content.