A pack of five dogs belonging to provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo are accused of invading a Libode village homestead and killing 23 sheep on Thursday.Kupelo has emphatically denied that his dogs are the culprits, saying he suspects wild animals.Members of the Dlanjwa family say they ran for their lives, locking themselves in their house, while the dogs entered their kraal and attacked the sheep, killing 23 and injuring others.However, despite Kupelo’s having doubts over the truth of the claims, he said on Friday he would negotiate with the affected family, “with a view to compensate them”.Kupelo said he would take legal action against villagers who, he said, had broken his electric gate and dumped 23 dead sheep inside his yard while he was away on holiday.On Monday, Kupelo said he would compensate the Dlanjwa family “for the sake of peace”. He said he would replace all 23 sheep this week.“I heard about the incident while away on holiday.“Even though I don’t believe my dogs were responsible, for the sake of peace I have decided to compensate the farmer, and I will [deliver] 23 sheep [by] the end of this week,” Kupelo said.By Monday, he had softened his stance on the gate, saying even though the repair would cost R8,000, he would no longer sue anyone.But he would be suing a Facebook user who made a negative comment about Kupelo’s supposed attitude.“That one, I will sue him to teach him a lesson because I felt vilified.”Kupelo said he based his view about wild animals attacking livestock on “reports from people close to me who have had their livestock attacked”.Emafini administrative area traditional leader Nkosi Thembelihle “Badibanise” Koyana, who is handling the saga, said: “A few years back there was talk in our villages that there was a wild animal doing that.“However, it was never caught.”The Dlanjwa family’s Sisa Nceketho said 20 of the killed sheep were fully grown, eight of them pregnant ewes, and three were lambs.Four were badly injured, two with exposed intestines.Nceketho said the family’s ordeal started just after 6am on Thursday.“I had just arrived from Mthatha when I heard dogs barking outside our gate.“The next thing I saw four or five dogs pushing down our gate and charging towards me and our helper.“We rushed to the house, and I later tried to go out and throw stones at them.“They ran to our neighbour’s yard, but moments later I saw they had come back and the helper screamed they were inside our kraal attacking our sheep,” Nceketho said.He again threw stones at the dogs, which, he said, ran off to Kupelo’s home, across the road about 100m away.