“We barely got five steps out of my gate and all of a sudden the dog was right on her,” the 53-year-old Chatham man said. “I could hear Sophie’s bones break.”
The incident happened the afternoon of Oct. 21. By the time Scruton got his eight-pound pooch out of the pit bull’s mouth, Sophie was severely injured. Her ribcage was crushed, and many of her organs punctured.
The owner of the other dog drove Scruton and Sophie to an animal hospital in nearby Dresden. Once there, it took the vet three tries to convince Scruton that Sophie had to be euthanized.
“She wasn’t just my dog. She was my little girl,” said Scruton.
The pitbull’s owner apologized profusely and paid the $600 vet bill.
According to the Ontario SPCA, the owner has been charged under municipal bylaws for having a dangerous dog and for having an animal at large. Other charges under the provincial Dog Owner’s Liability Act could be forthcoming, said the OSPCA’s Brad Dewar.
The fate of the pitbull is uncertain, but Scruton says the owner told him that he had already given the dog to a friend.
“That’s not good enough,” Scruton said. “I want that dog put down.”
Scruton bears the owner no ill will, but is upset the dog was outside without proper precaution or supervision. Under Ontario law, all pitbulls must be muzzled when in public.
The province banned the breed on Aug. 29, 2005, following a series of high-profile attacks, including one on a mail carrier in Chatham. However, dogs already owned by residents, or those born within 90 days of the ban were exempt.
Although the ban has frequently been challenged as unnecessary or cruel, Scruton says it should be more strict.
“We should review the ban, so that people that have pitbulls have to get rid of them,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time until this happens to someone else.”
According to spokesperson Alison Cross, the OSPCA seized six pit bulls in 2011. However, that number does not provide a complete picture, as the Dog Owner’s Liability Act is primarily enforced at the municipal level.
Where possible, Cross said, the OSPCA tries to move the dogs to provinces where they are not illegal rather than euthanize them.
(Metro News - Oct 29, 2012)
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