Dog attack horror recalled as victim who lost arm sues for R2.4-million

"The dogs just kept coming."

That was how a Rowallan Park man, close to tears, described the way in which a pack of dogs in the street kept on trying to get back to Gerald Cloete "to finish him off".

Jacques van Schalkwyk, 44, was giving evidence in the Port Elizabeth High Court in a R2.4m lawsuit brought by Cloete against the owner of the dogs, Christiaan van Meyeren.

Cloete, 42, lost his arm in the attack on Saturday February 18, 2017.

Van Schalkwyk also told how he used his flip-flops to beat off the blood-covered dogs.

In his plea before court, Van Meyeren, 48, first denied that the dogs who had attacked Cloete were his. He also said that he was not home that day and that an unknown intruder had broken the lock and the gate that kept the dogs inside the property.

Cloete’s counsel, Pieter Mouton, said Cloete had just been walking down the street when he was attacked by the dogs.

Van Meyeren eventually conceded that the dogs belonged to him, but said they had acted contrary to their domestic nature. 

The civil trial before judge Murray Lowe continues.

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