CANADA -- The muscular dog that killed a Calgary couple’s canine in front of their eyes is still on the loose and poses a threat to others, says one of the dead animal’s owners.
Sharon and Duncan Proudfoot said they’d enjoyed an afternoon last Tuesday at Ghost Lake, about 30 km west of Calgary, when two women arrived with a pair of bull mastiff dogs.
The two powerful canines had been running free at the lake’s day use area when one of them made a beeline for the Proudfoot’s much smaller, 12-year-old male Coton de Tuleur, Harley, said Sharon.
“There was no apparent aggression, no growling and then the dog just ran up and started chewing on Harley,” she said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it ... it was horrifying.”
With her husband sail-boarding at the time, Proudfoot, 47, said she tried pulling the bull mastiff off her dog to no avail, guessing the dog easily outweighed her 118 lbs.
“I tried so hard to pull its collar with absolutely no effect,” she said.
The two women owners of the bull mastiffs then appeared, with one yanking the sandy-coloured attacking animal away by its leash, she said.
But it was too late, said Proudfoot, who said she watched Harley breathe his last.
“It bit him in the middle and punctured his lung,” she said.
Proudfoot said the dog’s owner gave her a khaki hoodie as a shroud for her mangled pet and offered further help.
But she said the two women then fled the scene with their dogs in a Grey Nissan Pathfinder with black bumpers, possibly a 2004 model.
“They left me there covered in my dog’s blood,” said Proudfoot, fearing for possible future victims.
“There’s no doubt in my mind it’ll kill small dogs or children ... if my dog hadn’t been there, it would have come after me.”
With Ghost Lake outside the jurisdiction of municipal bylaw enforcement, Proudfoot said they turned to Cochrane RCMP, who showed up to take pictures and seize the bloodied hoodie.
She said both women were brunette, white, of medium build with one aged in her forties, the other in her mid 30s.
Proudfoot said she and her husband have been unable to have children, making Harley a special member of their family.
“This dog was like a baby to me — we know he would leave us but we hoped in a gentle way,” she said.
“I’m an animal lover, but that dog should be destroyed — it’s a killer.”
Cochrane RCMP Const. Lee Sandau said he’s checking with local animal control officials who might have had dealings with a bull mastiff fitting that description.
“But we don’t have a licence plate and unless people come forward, at this point we’re not going to get anywhere,” he said.
(Calgary Sun - July 9, 2012)
