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Deal faster with dangerous dogs

Without any fines or consequences, owners of dangerous dogs can do what they want.
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It would seem that if an owner of a vicious dog is a renter and is so irresponsible that they don’t license, control or secure their dog, and it attacks another dog and/or person, nothing can be done if they flee or don’t admit guilt.

At approximately 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 16 while my son was out walking our licensed and leashed family dog on the sidewalk, a pit bull or a dog looking like one broke out of an unsecured yard in Newton and attacked our dog and son. Both needed medical attention.

A person finally came out of the home, dragged the dog back in and left my son and dog bleeding on the sidewalk.

My son called me immediately on his cellphone and I was there in minutes. I knocked on all the doors of said house, but no one was answering.

I called the RCMP and animal control and they also got no answers. No dog was licensed at the address.

It turns out that the main floor of the home was empty, but the two illegal basement suites were rented.

I was able to get the licence plate of the dog owners’ car and confirmed with the owner of the home that it was their car and that they owned the dog. I passed this on to the officers. The homeowner also said that these tenants had been nothing but trouble, so he finally had the bailiffs remove them and their belongings on May 28.

On top of the wounds, pain and suffering, and the work, activity and time lost to take care of our injured dog and child, we have a vet bill with no one being held responsible.

With these individuals gone with no forwarding address, animal control has no dog or owner and will now close the file. Without any fines or consequences, the dog is free to attack again.

These types of people should never be allowed to own a dangerous animal; next time it may be a younger, smaller child and dog with much more dire results.

Hopefully it doesn’t take the death of a small child or pet to wake this city up and find a better, faster (24/7) system for dealing with these types of incidents.

 

A. Andersen