Unfortunately, some endings to stories, even the feel-good ones, don’t have a happily ever after.
At least it didn’t for Barb Malkowsi, who says Shield attacked her Welsh pony named Red a week ago, then showed aggression toward her as she wielded a pitchfork to keep the dog at bay.
The incident, said the critical care nurse, left her terrified and shaken. What’s got Malkowski even more upset is that nothing has happened to the dog she insists is a danger to other animals and humans.
While Kendall County Animal Control wouldn’t comment because “the incident is under investigation,” both Malkowski and Shield’s owner, Aurora Police Officer Chris Grandchamp, told me Kendall County does not plan on quarantining the dog because it did not bite a human, nor does it have a history of aggression.
But the column that ran earlier this year about Grandchamp rescuing the dog proves the pit bull has been aggressive in the past, insists Malkowski, whose family has been long-time neighbors of Grandchamp’s parents.
Back in February, the police officer had responded to an aggressive dog call, but when he got to the scene, he said he found a mild-mannered pit bull instead. According to protocol, however, the dog was taken to Aurora Animal Control where, after a vet said it showed some signs of aggression, she was scheduled to be put down.
Through a rescue group, Grandchamp intervened and was able to adopt the dog. And since then, he told me emphatically, Shield has never shown even a hint of aggression, despite being around plenty of adults, children and other animals.
But Malkowsi paints a different picture. She said she was getting out of the shower after work Saturday night, June 15, when she heard “all sorts of commotion” coming from the barn on her property in unincorporated Yorkville. When she got to the barn, she said the dog was clamped on her horse that was backed into a stall.
Malkowski said she used the pitchfork to fend off the dog that “was trying to get around it” to get to her or the pony. After the pit bull ran away, she called 911, and eventually a veterinarian stitched up the deepest of the multiple punctures her horse sustained.
In addition to payment for the vet bill, Malkowski and her family are demanding the dog be put down, not just because it attacked her horse but because her young grandchildren frequently visit, and she fears the dog will get loose again.
“What if that would have been a child instead of a horse it decided to attack?” she said.
Grandchamp vehemently denies Shield is a danger, and says this incident is yet another example of these neighbors creating problems with his family. The rescue group, he added, would “never have released the dog if they thought it would hurt someone.”
OFFICER GRANDCHAMP BLAMES THE VICTIMS
No one saw what happened between the two animals that started the attack, he added. And he’s convinced “any dog would have defended itself” as Shield did “if a pitchfork was used against it.”
Grandchamp says he’s tried to pay the $520 vet bill several times but has not been able to get in touch with the family. And he’s “very relieved” animal control said there were no plans to take control of his pet.
Which is what has the neighbors so frustrated.
“We don’t get straight answers from anyone we talk to,” said Malkowski’s son Ryan, who has spoken to both Kendall County and Aurora animal control. “It’s like they are more concerned about the dog than they are people.
“Thankfully my Mom is fine and the horse will be fine,” he said. “But I cannot accept that this dog with his track record is able to live next door.”
(Beacon News - June 23, 2013)
