CANADA -- It took a stun gun and three officers to restrain a pit bull as it attacked a man and his dog in northwest Calgary on Wednesday.
But Roger Cole figured the canine was “unstoppable.”
But Roger Cole figured the canine was “unstoppable.”
Cole was walking his shepherd-boxer cross, Rudy, in the 100 block of Hawkwood Way N.W. on Wednesday afternoon when he met two dogs that had escaped from a nearby backyard.
A scuffle broke out between Rudy and one of two wayward dogs — a pit bull.
Cole said the pit bull ended up pinning his dog. And when yelling didn’t stop the attack, he pulled a fence post from a nearby scrap lumber pile and took action.
“I was beating this pit bull — I mean hard,” he said. “It didn’t even faze him.”
“You know the movie The Terminator? You couldn’t stop him — that’s how this dog was.”
Cole said the attack went on for about 25 minutes before police arrived.
The pit bull was still on top of Rudy when authorities arrived. A Taser was needed to subdue it, duty staff sergeant John McCarthy told reporters at the scene.
“It was effective, to a certain extent,” McCarthy said. “But then the officers had to go in and basically wrestle the pit bull down.”
Steve Daley, a tenant of the house where the dogs reside, arrived on scene shortly after the skirmish. Daley was seen shouting at both dogs while they were detained in separate police cars.
Afterwards, he said it was likely that the pit bull, called Theta, was play fighting with the other dog.
McCarthy said the case appeared to be much more than roughhousing, based on the officers’ account.
“It didn’t look like dogs having a pleasant visit on the street,” he said. “It looked like a dog attack.”
Cole said a veterinarian told him that Rudy’s injuries were limited to his ears, which was lucky.
Daley, who recently moved in with the dogs’ owners, said Theta is being unfairly judged based on breed.
“He’s just a big, scary-looking dog,” Daley said. “Do you hate somebody because they’re big?”
Cole thinks otherwise.
“Only a bullet could stop that dog,” he said, adding he’d like to see the city adopt breed-specific legislation.
Theta is being held at a City of Calgary facility while animal and bylaw services investigates. They were waiting to speak with the dogs’ owners.
Charges are pending against the owners of the escaped dogs.
(Calgary Herald - September 6, 2012)
