The 53-year-old Chatham man is seated at his kitchen table, trying not to break down as he recounts the last time he took his small dog for a walk Oct. 21.
Scruton and three-and-a-half-year-old Sophie had barely made it out the backyard gate of their Grand Avenue East property when a neighbour's dog “came out of nowhere and clamped its jaws on her,” he told The Chatham Daily News on Saturday.
His tiny mop-a-poo (maltipoo) didn't stand a chance against the 80-lb pit bull, he said.
“It was a minute-and-a-half before we could even get Sophie out of her mouth and she totally crushed Sophie,” Scruton said.
Alesha Brown lives three doors away.
She heard the commotion in the alley behind her home.
“I heard a guy yelling and saw my neighbour grab his dog. The other dog had chunks of blood coming out of his mouth,” she said.
The owner of the pit bull drove Scruton and Sophie to a veterinary clinic where Scruton said he had to make the hard decision to have his beloved pet euthanized.
“Every bone in her rib cage was broken and her lungs were punctured. The vet told me it was the worst attack he had ever seen,” Scruton said.
The owner of the pit bull paid the medical expenses and told him he was sorry, Scruton said.
But in the days following the attack, concern turned to the children living in the neighbourhood.
“My kids play in that alley,” Brown said. “I don't want that dog there. I don't feel comfortable having that dog there.”
Scruton said he reported the attack to the Kent Branch of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which he believed did an investigation, only to learn later he would not be notified of any decisions made in the matter.
“That's not right,” Scruton said.
The local OSPCA office was closed on the weekend when contacted by The Daily News.
Scruton said he told the owner of the dog on numerous occasions to fix his fence gates.
“They blow open in the wind,” Scruton said.
When his landlord came to winterize the house just prior to the attack, Scruton watched over the gate while the landlord worked outside.
The landlord told The Daily News he didn't want to be identified, but he confirmed Scruton helped to keep him safe while he worked in the yard recently.
The landlord went on to describe Sophie as “a kind of dog everybody would love.”
“She was my everything. She loved me every bit as much as I loved her,” Scruton said, sobbing.
Scruton called The Daily News Sunday afternoon to say he had just learned the pit bull had been given to a friend, but he didn't know where it went.
“Has the problem just moved to a different neighbourhood?” he wondered.
(Chatham Daily News - Oct 28, 2012)
