Kitchen, who’s visually impaired, had to put down her 11-year-old dog, Oscar, Thursday night after deciding his injuries from Wednesday’s attack were too severe. She also has a guide dog, a black lab named Palmer.
“The thing I’m concerned about is that the dogs aren’t going to be put down … and that’s the thing we really wanted,” said Kitchen.
But the killer dogs' owners say that’s far from necessary.
“I would be the first person to insist those dogs would go if they were posing a threat to our grandchildren,” said Suzanne Taylor, whose son, daughter-in-law and a grandson live in the same Elmwood Avenue home. “We just don’t believe in killing animals for no reason.”
Kitchen, who has some sight, was taking Oscar for a walk alone on Elmwood Avenue last Wednesday evening when she said two of her neighbors’ three American Bulldogs “came flying out of the backyard.”
One dog grabbed Oscar by the neck and the other bit at his legs.
She screamed for help and a man driving by stopped to help break up the fight. He couldn’t, so Kitchen directed him into her house to fetch her husband, Grant.
Oscar was moaning the entire time.
When her husband arrived, Kitchen said he broke up the fight with a stick.
The Cambridge and District Humane Society verified Kitchen’s version of events.
Executive director Bonnie Deekon said the neighbors’ dogs won’t be euthanized, but they have been declared “dangerous dogs” under a Cambridge bylaw.
That allows the humane society to track the dogs through microchips, requires that they be kept in enclosures with extra security such as a concrete bottom and mandates they wear muzzles and leashes no longer than a meter when outside of the owners’ property.
The dog owners have been fined $125 for each of the two dogs for allowing them to run free. They also paid $1,500 in veterinary bills.
Taylor said the dogs have never gotten loose from the backyard before, and it was an unfortunate accident. A family friend had visited and when he left through the gate, he didn’t check the latch, she said.
“He didn’t mean for that to happen. We didn’t mean for that to happen,” Taylor said. “We’re all upset about the loss.”
Oh really? You have your two killer dogs at home. Her dog is dead.
Kitchen said she always believed the neighbors’ dogs were all pit bulls, but when the Cambridge and District Humane Society investigated the incident, they determined the dogs were American Bulldogs.
“We have papers to that effect. These are not illegal dogs,” Suzanne Taylor said.
This is the mentality of Suzanne Taylor
(The Record - Nov 21, 2011)
