“It’s a joke,” owner Jason Scott said Wednesday after a failed appeal to the city’s licensing commission to have his pet’s designation as a danger to the community overturned.
Molly is accused of biting the ankle of a postie after the dog escaped through an open gate at a Riverside home on Aug. 23. Scott said he offered a bandage to the letter carrier, but he told the commissioners he couldn’t spot any blood and the worker continued on her rounds.
Relying on a statement the Canada Post employee made to Windsor police, in which she said the dog bit her, the commissioners voted unanimously to uphold the danger designation as recommended by city administration.
It means Jason and Mitzie Scott must obtain a million-dollar liability insurance policy for their dog, who can no longer leave the house without a leash and muzzle. Signs issued by the city have to be “conspicuously” posted at the doors of their home in the 1200 block of Matthew Brady Boulevard which read: WARNING: Dangerous Dog on Premises. As well, Molly has to be microchipped to identify her as a dangerous dog.
“I don’t even know if they have muzzles that size — I just think it’s kinda silly, to the extreme,” said Mitzie Scott as she cradled Molly in her palm Wednesday. She said their pet of five years had never bit anyone before.
“Everybody pets my dog because she’s so small and cute … she plays with kids all the time,” Scott told the licensing commission, which is chaired by Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones. “The dog is literally three pounds — it’s the size of an adult shoe.”
But the bylaw is clear: if a dog causes injury to a person or other domesticated animal in Windsor, it’s deemed dangerous, city deputy licensing commissioner Michael Chantler told The Star. He said it’s up to the person appealing that designation to prove otherwise and present to the commission any mitigating circumstances, for example, showing the dog may have been provoked.
“Nobody actually witnessed the alleged bite,” Scott told the commission, adding he simply took the mail carrier’s word for it. In her sworn statement to police, the postie told police that Mitzie Scott told her Molly “usually nips at people. I told her that it wasn’t a nip, the dog bit me.”
But the victim made no appearance at the commission’s meeting and no photos were presented to indicate the injury reported.
Spotted doing her Matthew Brady rounds on Wednesday, the letter carrier expressed shock that the incident had led to a dangerous dog designation.
“I’m surprised … I felt if they appealed, things would be taken care of,” said the postie, who asked not to be named. While being on a relatively new route and not knowing the dog well enough, she said Molly probably just needs “some obedience training.”
She said she was required to report the incident to her manager, who instructed her to file a complaint with police. She took the next day off work to visit her doctor, who prescribed an antibiotic cream for the injury, which she described as four small puncture wounds.
Police passed the matter on to the city’s bylaw department, which dispatched an enforcement officer to the Scott residence two weeks later on Sept. 6. Upon meeting Molly, Mitzie Scott said the bylaw officer “said he felt kind of weird” but that he was obliged to serve them with the dangerous dog designation.
“It would be nice if there was at least some room for discretion,” said Melanie Coulter of the humane society. Enacted in 2004, what city council ended up approving was “certainly not the bylaw I would have written.”
With the newest addition, Chantler said there are now 24 names on Windsor’s dangerous dog registry, including one other chihuahua, albeit one that is eight pounds.
“They may be small, but they’re known to be aggressive,” commission member and Ward 2 Coun. Drew Dilkens said of chihuahuas. He said he was bit twice by dogs while campaigning in the last municipal election
“It’s not the size of the dog, it’s how aggressive the dog is,” said fellow commissioner and Ward 7 Coun. Percy Hatfield. “That could have been a child,” he added, referring to the victim.
Both Dilkens and Hatfield said they relied on the postie’s statement to police to help reach their decision.
As for the victim, the mail carrier said she has a Lab of her own.
“I love dogs,” she said, adding she wasn’t aware a first bite could lead to a dog being designated dangerous in Windsor.
(Regina Leader-Post - October 18, 2012)
