Retired Canada Post letter carrier Darlene Wagner lives with the scars and injuries sustained when she was attacked by two pit bull-type dogs while delivering mail in a north Chatham neighbourhood in June 2004.
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| Wagner was attacked by two pit bull in June 2004 that tore off her ear and broke both her wrists. |
Wagner, who was 58 at the time, had her right ear torn off by one of the dogs and suffered two broken wrists in the attack.
Donna Alliett, of Chatham, watched in horror as a pit bull attacked her then nine-month-old basset hound, Sanford, after the larger dog busted through a gate to get at the puppy in late August 2007.
The controversial dog breed has made news again now that Bill 16, introduced by Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier and co-sponsored by Liberal MPP Kim Craitor and NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo to get rid of a ban on pit bulls, has recently passed second reading.
Bill 132, which bans the breed in Ontario, was introduced by the Liberals and passed in March 2005.
When Wagner heard about this latest bill, she said, "I thought, 'This crazy.' Why do they want these dogs back in? I don't understand it."
She believes the province is safer with the current pit bull ban in place.
"Delivering mail over the years I got bit by numerous different dogs," Wagner said. "But, they'll nip you then they'll run away.
"But the pit bulls don't do that, they hang on," she added.
"I was lucky that they didn't kill me," she said of the attack she suffered.
Alliett doesn't believe in a pit bull ban, "because it's not really the dog's fault."
She believes the fault lies with the owners of these dogs, "if they're going to train their dogs to attack, to kill."
Alliett added, "the ban hasn't done any good, because it was in effect when Sanford got attacked."
She is not scared of the breed, noting she has been around several pit bulls, which have all been good dogs. She believes that's because those animals have been treated right.
Alliett said Sanford is now six and has successfully bred two large litters of puppies, despite being bitten in the groin area by the pit bull that attacked him.
Wagner got political over the issue, appearing before a standing committee on Bill 132, in February 2005, to speak out against the breed.
She is ready to do it, again.
"If this is going to flare up again and they are going to try and do it, I'd be willing to say something about it," she said.
Nearly eight years after the attack, Wagner said her wrists, which are not 100%, still bother her in the cold weather. She added her ear still doesn't look normal despite undergoing eight reconstructive surgeries.
However, Wagner doesn't have nightmares about the incident.
"I have daymares, cause I have to deal with it every day," she said of her injuries and looking at herself in the mirror. "It's very frustrating."
(Chatham Daily News - March 6, 2012)
