1/3 Photo: Dierenambulance Brabant North-East.
Rowena Oomis (25) saw a dead pit bull in the canal on the Dongensekanaaldijk in Tilburg on Tuesday evening. The animal had a rope around its neck and was probably strangled. There is still no trace of the owner. “We waited three hours for help.”
She couldn’t sleep last night. “It’s very high for me,” says Rowena the next morning. “How can someone be like that? Why? I have no words.”
On Tuesday, Rowena suddenly received a call from a friend. She said she saw a dog lying in the canal. If Rowena wanted to come and have a look. “I immediately got on the bike,” she says. Once arrived at the canal, Rowena also saw the animal. “When I walked up, tears immediately came to my eyes. The pit bull was floating there, his head hanging in the water.”
A rope was tied around the pit bull’s neck. Rowena grabbed a stick to get the animal to the side. She tried to see if the dog had been there long. “I wanted to see how hard his fur was. It was really heavy and all swollen with moisture.”
“My friend took the dog out of the water himself.”
Together with her friend, she decided to enlist help. But according to Rowena, that didn’t go without a hitch. “I’ve tried everything. When I called the police, they said they didn’t deal with this. The animal ambulance didn’t answer. The animal crematorium couldn’t help,” she sums up.
Rowena stood by the canal for about three hours, waiting for help. “We kept calling the animal ambulance and the police all the time. Eventually the police came. My friend took the dog out of the water himself, where the police were there.”
According to a spokesperson for the Animal Ambulance Brabant North-East, Rowena did not call them, but the Animal Ambulance Tilburg. “It is not available in the evening. People can always call us directly, but we are always available. Fortunately, the police called us last night,” says the spokesperson.
“There was a rope around his neck.”
Agents secured traces and investigated on Tuesday evening. The animal ambulance arrived after Rowena had already left. And the dog was eventually transferred to the animal police. He will take the animal to a pathologist for further examination. “There was a rope around his neck, but we want to make sure that this is really the cause of death,” explains the spokesman for the animal ambulance.
There is still no trace of the owner. The dog was chipped, but that chip is not registered. The chip number has a Romanian country code. “So the animal probably comes from Romania. The question is who owns it.” The manufacturer of the chip registration will check whether this can still be found. People who know more are asked to report to the police.
