The 17-year-old bodybuilder who allegedly broke a puppy’s leg in Bloemfontein last week to “test his strength” did not show up at his court appearance and police can’t track him down.

According to Rapport, Phaladi Shuping, Free State spokesperson of the National Prosecuting Authority, said police could not locate the boy.

Shuping reportedly said no warrant of arrest had been issued yet.

The pup, Rover, was rescued from a home in the Bayswater area on December 15 after 23:00, where it was found in excruciating pain.Rover’s leg had to be amputated during an operation on Monday that set the SPCA back around R8 000. But, by Wednesday, enough donations had been received to cover the cost of the procedure.

Local SPCA inspector Duan Matthee said he was “shocked” by the number of people who had donated toward Rover’s surgery and who wanted to adopt him.

“We’ve had more than 300 people saying they want to adopt Rover and we have had more than 30 formal applications. We could also cover all the medical costs.”

Prosthetic limb

Matthee told Rapport that the top candidate for Rover’s adoption is a Pretoria-based woman who offered to take him to Onderstepoort to have a prosthetic limb made for him.

A man also called the SPCA and offered two months’ salary in exchange for the boy’s name.

On Friday, News24 published a video of Rover taking his first steps since his leg was amputated on Monday.

earlier reported that the teenager had told Matthee that he was a bodybuilder who used supplements and wanted to test his strength.He saw on social media how people lifted heavy stuff to see what their breaking limits are. We still wanted to know what had happened to the dog, so we asked him again. He said that he wanted to see what he can lift and how strong he was. So he started by lifting heavy metals and breaking a broom stick, but it was not enough. He then googled how strong bones were and what amount of force can break [them]. He then called his dog and started to press on the dog’s leg.”

The teen proceeded to break the dog’s leg until the bone pierced through its skin. Police arrested him after he initially refused to give SPCA officials access to Rover.

– Compiled by Riaan Grobler