Family in shock after dog stabbed

A KIRSTENHOF family is reeling after their dog survived a knife attack so violent that the blade was driven to its hilt, missing her brain by millimetres.

- MURRAY SWART [e-mail]

The Cape of Good Hope SPCA has opened an investigation into cruelty charges under the Animals Protection Act and CCTV evidence, tying three local teens to the stabbing.

Zia, a four-year-old female brindle cross, was attacked at 3.08pm on December 8. Her owner, Jonathan Nel, arrived home shortly before 4pm to find her with "a large knife protruding from her nose". He rushed her to the SPCA in Grassy Park, where emergency x-rays revealed the blade was lodged deep in her right nasal cavity.

By 4.31pm, SPCA inspectors, supported by Kirstenhof Crime Watch (KCW), had analysed neighbourhood CCTV footage, identifying three teenagers between the ages of 16 and 17 as suspects.