“Severely traumatised” is how a Port Elizabeth woman described her feelings after she was left with no choice but to shoot dead her neighbour's dogs.

On Thursday morning, the two pit bulls scaled Yvonne van der Watt’s 2m wall on Bangor Street, Sherwood, and attacked her three-year-old mixed-breed dog, Bruno.

When a desperate Van der Watt (73) tried to drive the pit bulls off Bruno, the dogs turned their ferocity on her and her brother-in-law, Egbert Schlodder, 68, who rushed outside the house when he heard what he described as an intense commotion.

Schlodder used a sjambok to try to separate the dogs.

Van der Watt then grabbed a hose pipe and sprayed the dogs with water, but this appeared to aggravate the situation and the dogs dragged Bruno from the backyard to the front.

After frantic calls to the security company, neighbourhood watch and police, Van der Watt ran into the house, fetched a shotgun and killed the pit bulls.

On Thursday afternoon, blood spatters and smears could still be seen at the entrance to the house and on the carpet in the lounge.

“The [neighbours’] dogs and our dogs have been here for years and we’ve never had any trouble before,” Schlodder said.

“We’re all animal lovers, but shooting the pit bulls was the only thing we could do. They just wouldn’t let up.”

Police spokesperson Captain Sandra Janse van Rensburg said no criminal case would be opened because Van der Watt had acted in self-defence.

- HeraldLIVE