IN THE NEWS: Give the dog a bone

In an unusual case involving a vicious attack on a little girl, the death of a dog, and what some will no doubt regard as a ludicrous waste of the judicial system’s time and resources, The Times recently reported on the curious case of a Cape Town dog lover who has one of the Equality Courts running in circles. The man was apparently arrested in 2012 when his dog attacked a two-year-old girl on a public beach – no doubt leaving the child traumatised and leading to the unfortunate putting down of the dog. This same dog has apparently been the subject of litigation by its owner on two previous occasions – first against a gym that refused to allow the dog to enter its premises and later against an airline that refused to allow the dog to be a passenger on a flight to Johannesburg.

In this latest saga, the owner is throwing a spanner in the works in respect of a conciliation meeting with the injured child’s parents by insisting that the meeting needs to be held via video link. The man alleges to suffer from “electromagnetic field intolerance syndrome” and apparently has medical documents to prove this (for those of you who are wondering, while medical scientists agree that some people who claim to have this condition present with symptoms, according to the World Health Organisation there is currently no scientific evidence that such symptoms are actually caused by exposure to electromagnetic fields). Because of his condition he insisted on attending his first court appearance in a wheelchair and demanded that fluorescent lights in the court building be turned off just for him while he was in court. In his latest gambit, he is now insisting on a conference by video-link because the venue for the conciliation meeting is close to three cell phone towers. Ironically, some cell tower sleuthing has shown that the beach on which the little girl was attacked is relatively close to at least three cell phone towers, although it is not entirely clear how far their electromagnetic fields extend. Given the serious nature of the attack on a child one has to ask the question – to what extent must our justice system accommodate these somewhat unusual demands and give this dog a bone?

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