WATCH HERE: Attacking pit bull shot dead in Ashburton

An Ashburton resident was forced to shoot two pit bull terriers that ran out of his fenced yard to attack him and his dog during a morning walk on Wednesday.

Ettiene Fivaz and his Belgian Malinois-Dutch Shepherd mix named Soldier were on their daily walk at 4 a.m. when two pit bulls, Bruno and Rocky, appeared “out of nowhere.”

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“I heard barking on the street and as we turned the corner, these two pit bulls came to get my dog,” he said The witness.

I jumped in between them to scare them away. Usually, yelling and screaming at them works. I managed to get one dog loose and it started coming at me again, so I had to shoot it.

“I had no choice but to shoot the other one, but he found his way back home,” Fivaz said.

Fivaz said he and Soldier had been in the area every morning around 4 a.m. for the past 14 months, but this was the first time they had been attacked.

“I like to go for walks at this time because that’s when people go to work and houses are being broken into,” he said.

Soldier suffered serious injuries after being bitten on the legs, requiring emergency surgery. He is currently recovering in hospital. Bruno died instantly when he was shot, while Rocky is now back home with his owners.

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Fivaz was upset and angry at the time and posted a heated message on the community’s WhatsApp group about the attack and the measures he had to take to protect himself and Soldier.

However, he said he was impressed by Bruno and Rocky’s owners, who took full responsibility for the incident and offered to pay Soldier’s medical bills.

“Not many people would do that,” he said.

Bruno and Rocky’s owners, who asked not to be identified in the newspaper, said they had no idea how the dogs escaped from their fenced yard.

Speak with The witness On Wednesday, the man, who is away on business, said his wife received a call in the early hours of the morning from a neighbor informing her that the dogs were on the way.

Ultimately, we are not sure what happened. From what I heard from my wife, my neighbor called and said the dogs were on the street.

“She managed to find the dogs and bring them to the house, where she locked them in the storage room so we could investigate how they escaped from the yard,” he said.

However, the dogs managed to escape from the storage room and yard again.

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The man said the dogs would occasionally escape from the yard.

“We have received complaints from time to time that the dogs are outside, but the SPCA has carried out thorough checks. We have replaced the entire fence and put up a 1.8-metre high fence so that the dogs cannot jump over it,” he said.

These are our dogs and we are responsible for them, but Bruno was very friendly and we never had an attack on a person. I have a lot of people on the farm all the time and the dogs have not shown any vicious behavior, but that is my personal opinion. Bruno was very friendly.

Fivaz said he reported all incidents in the neighborhood WhatsApp group after these walks.

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At the time of publication, the SPCA had not responded to requests for comment.