Dog pays price for communications gap
Jody Paterson
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Wednesday, August 28, 2002
A lesson for vacationing dog-owners: Leave a contact number. Because things can really get out of hand if you don't.
Take the case of Lucy, the German shepherd cross who got a little cranky with novice dogsitter Rebecca Wilkinson 20 minutes into a three-week stay. By the time unsuspecting owner Catherine Fraser arrived back home last week, Lucy had been dead almost two weeks, euthanized by the Capital Regional District after Wilkinson surrendered her.
But that's only the beginning and the end of the story. In between was a series of unusual events that paved the way for Lucy's untimely death, starting with the dogsitter's decision on that first day to put the shepherd into a kennel after the dog scared her with its barking.
Kennels don't normally take dogs without proof of vaccination. But City Centre Kennels agreed to, based on Wilkinson's promise that the records would be brought in later.
The records never did arrive, although that would soon be the least of Lucy's problems. The dog got away from one of the kennel dog-walkers three days later and bolted back to Fraser's house nearby. Cornered by kennel staff later that day, the panicked dog sprang over a fence to get away and broke a leg.
It was far from a life-threatening injury for a three-year-old, healthy dog. Unfortunately, the dogsitter ran out of money after paying $550 for a vet to splint Lucy's broken leg. Casting the leg was going to cost another $800. The week's worth of kennel fees paid by Wilkinson, who was unavailable for comment for this article, also had run out by then. The kennel was owed $150.
There was no way to know what the owner would want done.
Fraser hadn't left information on where she could be reached. "I just never imagined a set of circumstances like this," says the stricken mother of two, who pleaded with me to use her middle name to shield her from those who would condemn her as "an irresponsible owner" for not leaving a contact number.
So Wilkinson abandoned the dog at the kennel, which subsequently called in CRD bylaw-enforcement officers to take Lucy away because of the $150 that was owing. "We have to be quite firm about that, because we've had instances of people who never do come for their animals," says kennel staffer Pat Parton.
Lucy's fate was sealed once she was transferred to the pound. The CRD is willing to spend a maximum $50 to keep an injured animal comfortable until its owner shows up, says bylaw-enforcement officer Ian Fraser. But Lucy needed a lot more than that, and her owner wasn't due home for another two weeks. And injured animals aren't eligible for adoption.
The district contacted the dogsitter to seek guidance. Wilkinson agreed to have Lucy euthanized, something she apparently had the right to do as the person who was officially in charge of the dog's care and control.
The dog was killed Aug. 9.
"This has been a really unfortunate set of circumstances," says bylaw officer Fraser (who, as predicted by Lucy's owner, was highly critical of her for not leaving contact information). "I've been a bylaw officer for seven years and I've never seen anything like it. But short of having taxpayers pay for the vet bills, I don't know what else could have been done."
He defends Wilkinson's decision to have the dog killed, saying she'd already "spent next month's rent" on kennel fees and vet bills.
Horrified animal-rescue groups say there were options. Both the Nana Foundation and the Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders say they would have gladly taken care of further vet bills and found a foster home for Lucy if anyone had phoned them.
"I think this is the worst story I've heard in months," says Tryntje Horn, whose non-profit Nana Foundation spent $60,000 on vet bills for strays and needy animals last year. "Any one of us would have jumped in if we'd just known about it."
Animal Crusaders spokeswoman Carol Sonnex says money is always tight for rescue groups, but the Crusaders at least would have tried to pay for another vet visit to stabilize Lucy's leg.
"It's a terrible thing to come home to," says Sonnex. "We would have intervened if we'd known. But there's not much that can be done after the fact."
The death of her dog has left Fraser sad rather than angry, although she's upset that City Centre refused to keep Lucy longer when it was to blame for the dog's escape in the first place. Mostly, she just wishes she'd left that contact number behind.
"I thought my dog would be totally safe in this woman's care," she says. "I guess I just never imagined anything like this could happen."
© Copyright 2002 Times Colonist (Victoria)