Two dogs that ran amok at the Boulders penguin colony in the Cape Peninsula National Park near Simon's Town killed 13 of the threatened species.

Six eggs were recovered from nests of dead birds and are being incubated at Sanccob (SA National Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) in the hope that they may still hatch.

The dogs - Siberian huskies - had apparently escaped from their Murdoch Valley property before, and may have been released during a bungled "dog-napping" attempt.

This was the view of Tracey van der Merwe, daughter-in-law of Hendrik "Van the Penguin Man" van der Merwe.

Ms van der Merwe, who was called to help restrain the dogs, declined to name the owner.

She said he was deeply upset by the incident, which happened about 6.30pm on Monday, and had indicated he would keep the gate to his property locked in future.

"He has very good security there - this wasn't his fault," she said.

Cathy Evans, a waitress at a restaurant near the gate of the penguin colony, said she was alerted by a tourist who asked whether anyone cared that penguins were being killed.

She ran across and found one bird dead and another two dying.

"We managed to grab one of the dogs and a woman put it in her car. It was horrible," she said.

The other dog ran off but then returned and was seen chasing penguins in the shallow water at the beach before it was caught.

Restaurant owner Frans Hollenbach was critical of the parks board managers of the penguin colony. "It was hard to get hold of someone after hours," he said.

- John Yeld,
Environment Writer