NOTE: The "reporter" has got so many "facts" wrong that she puts the North Shore News' credibility into serious disrepute. The SPCA had nothing to do with this incident. This incident happened at the Vancouver City pound. It is the pound that rescued Bandit and had charges laid again his owner. We hope the SPCA will do the right thing by writing the North Shore News, telling them that the credit for this story is not theirs.
WV man on trial for allegedly punching dog
SPCA shelter staff give assault evidence
Jane Seyd
Animal shelter workers from the Vancouver pound told a provincial court judge Monday they saw a West Vancouver man who had come to claim his border collie punching the dog in the head right outside the SPCA shelter.
The shelter workers testified on the first day of a trial on animal cruelty charges being heard before Judge Thomas Gove in Vancouver provincial court.
Colin Mastin, 38, of West Vancouver, faces two animal cruelty charges including willfully causing unnecessary pain or injury to his dog and allowing an animal to be in distress. Mastin also faces a separate charge of assault on a shelter employee. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Crown counsel Amy Campbell told Gove the Crown's theory is that Mastin was upset when he went to retrieve his dog at the shelter on Sept. 14 of this year and took his frustrations out on both the dog and shelter employees.
Jennifer Ley, an animal control officer at the shelter, described her first run-in with Mastin that day after she lead Mastin's dog Bandit out of the kennel area on a leash. "He grabbed the lead and all at once twisted my arm" bending her thumb backwards, she said. Ley said she went to tell her supervisor what happened, and when she returned and looked outside, she saw Mastin hitting his dog, which was balanced between his legs on a scooter.
"He was full out punching Bandit," said Ley. Ley said she saw Mastin punch the dog near the scruff of the neck about eight times with a closed fist while the dog cowered on the scooter. She said several shelter employees then ran outside yelling at Mastin to stop. She said Mastin yelled back that he could discipline his dog any way he wanted.
Ley then described a tussle that happened around the scooter, with one shelter worker telling Mastin that the scooter "wasn't appropriate transportation for a dog" and hanging on to the handlebars to prevent him leaving, while others - including a volunteer who had just arrived - tried to grab the dog and wrestle Mastin away from him.
The melee ended when another animal control officer ran out of the shelter and rugby tackled Mastin to the ground, said Ley. Employees then scooped up Bandit and took the dog back to the pound.
Ley said later on she took the dog to the vet, describing Bandit as cowering on the floor of her car and flinching whenever someone tried to touch him.
Ley said her own hand also swelled up with a "severe sprain" after the tussle on the leash with Mastin and she now has to wear a brace for any heavy-duty work.
Darcy Van Peteghem, another animal control officer, also testified she saw Mastin "closed-fist punching the dog, slapping the dog" and picking it up by the scruff of the neck and shaking it. Van Peteghem said she saw Mastin hit the dog eight or 10 times in the head.
"The dog was making himself small and getting ready for the next hit," she said. Afterwards the dog was shaking and acted scared, she said.
In cross-examination, Mastin's defence lawyer Michael Smith asked Van Peteghem if that kind of behaviour could be caused by something else like "a dog being removed from its owner."
"I would say it was probably from the beating," said Van Peteghem.
Susan Wheeler, a volunteer at the shelter, and Guy Palanuik, an animal control officer, also said they saw Mastin punching or hitting his dog that day.
Palanuik said he saw Mastin appear to get frustrated as he tried to load the dog on to the scooter and start hitting the dog with an open hand. "They weren't love pats," he added.
The continuation of the trial has been adjourned to a later date.
Campbell said she will be calling the vet who examined Bandit to testify when the trial resumes.
Outside the court, defence lawyer Michael Smith said, "Our position is there was no assault of the civilian or the dog."
He said Mastin is looking forward to taking the witness stand in his own defence when the trial continues.
In an usual twist Monday, the judge ordered Mastin temporarily into the court lockup at the end of the day after noting that he had written "under duress" when he signed his bail release papers.
Gove told Mastin he didn't have to sign anything, and could remain in custody if he didn't agree to the bail conditions.
Smith said the issue was resolved and Mastin was released a short time later.
published on 12/15/2006