Natasha Parker, 20, appeared in Dartmouth Provincial Court on Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty to the charge of having a dangerous animal.
“No one told me that there was going to be company and to make sure that my dog would be locked up. That’s why I’m pleading not guilty,” Parker said about the incident in her Arklow Drive home.
She said although the dog was supposed to be locked in Parker’s room, “someone came out … and thought they shut the door all the way but they didn’t, and the dog got out.”
Parker said the girl who was bitten and her father were family friends of her parents whom she didn’t know.
She didn’t see the attack happen, but Parker said her pit bull, four-year-old Sosha, “freaked and snapped,” when the little girl tried to pet her.
Parker said Sosha has always been friendly towards her own one-year-old daughter and her friends’ children.
“My dog just licks them all the time,” she said.
When Parker’s daughter is not around Sosha, she said the dog gets “sooky” and worries about new people coming into the home.
The girl was taken for stitches in her face, and the city seized Sosha soon afterwards.
Parker will next appear in court on Nov. 14, and said she is in the process of getting a lawyer.
She said she plans to appeal to have Sosha returned in the meantime.
(Metro News CA - Jan 31, 2013)
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