Samuel Northey’s two-year-old boxer, Dover, was shot and killed by police during a May 31 rampage that left a Canada Post employee with bloody wounds to his face, head, hand and wrist.
The fate of the remaining boxer, Mac, will be decided by justice of the peace Arvid Luhning, who heard witnesses at bylaw court Friday. The hearing continues Dec. 13. Maximum penalties include a $10,000 fine and destruction of the dog.
Witnesses described chaotic events that involved the two dogs bursting through a sturdy wooden gate in a solid seven-foot fence, attacking letter carrier Gary Haaland and then snarling, barking, biting at and lunging at numerous people who intervened, including a passerby, an animal control officer, a firefighter and police.
The dogs repeatedly were driven away but always returned and menaced anyone who attempted to protect others or to corral them.
Saskatoon police Const. Thomas Bossen shot the more aggressive dog as both ran away. The injured dog collapsed a few blocks away as police and animal control officers tried to catch the other one.
Northey eventually captured his dog and has had custody of it since then. He has reinforced the gate and built a chain-link cage for Mac in the yard.
Northey said the dogs had always been friendly, cuddly and playful. He had never seen them display aggression. He still trusts Mac with his eight-year-old son and around his newborn son.
Veterinarian Altina Wickstrom said the owners have cared well for their pets and the boxers were always well behaved around her. Mac has never been aggressive with her, even when he is in pain, she said.
Since the incident, Mac has passed an eight-class obedience course.
Barry Gay, who testified as an expert witness in dog training, has also assessed Mac’s level of aggression at Northey’s home and found Mac behaves appropriately and not aggressively when tested.
Boxers were bred to be guard dogs, Gay said.
Haaland said it was common for the dogs to throw themselves against the fence when he delivered mail to the box on the outside of the gate.
That day, Haaland heard them growling before the gate burst open. The dogs ran at him and one of them lunged and hit his chest, knocking him to the ground. That dog bit his face as the second dog held his left hand.
Barinedum Mbuekor, 19, was walking her Pekinese-Chihuahua nearby. When the boxers turned their attention to her and her dog, Haaland used his pepper spray on the aggressive dogs but it didn’t help for long.
Mbuakor and her sister tried unsuccessfully to drive the dogs away with sticks. A motorist stopped and called 911 and gave Haaland and the women refuge as the dogs circled the car.
Ambulance staff didn’t dare get out when they arrived.
Firefighter Bill Riley broke a stick over the head of one of the dogs.
“These two were in total attack mode. If I wasn’t beating them with that stick, somebody else would have been hurt,” Riley said.
He and animal control officer Chantelle Miller tried unsuccessfully to catch them with rabies poles with loops on the end and sometimes had to use the poles to jab the dogs when they got too close.
Haaland needed stitches to his face, head, hand and wrist. He missed a month of work and is awaiting plastic surgery for some of the scars.
Mbuekor has always loved dogs but she now fears large breeds and is afraid to walk in the neighbourhood, her mother, Grace Mbuekor said outside court.
(StarPhoenix - Nov 22, 2013)
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Is that a murse he's carrying??!
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