Latest pit-bull biting incident renews calls for breed's ban
Matthew Ramsey
The Province
Sunday, September 19, 2004
The owner of a pit-bull bitch that bit a girl on the hand and then attacked a horse in Port Coquitlam says his dog was provoked.
The 28-year-old, who didn't wish to be named, says his dog Sheba only went for the horse on an acreage on Devon Road Sept. 7 because it kicked one of her puppies. "My dog doesn't go around biting horses," he said. "People like to make pit bulls out to be crazy. Mine aren't . . . If a horse trampled a German shepherd puppy, what would the mom do?"
But the owner of the dog and the mother of the girl who was bitten by Sheba just moments before the horse mauling are telling a very different story.
The PoCo attack is the latest in a string of incidents involving pit bulls from Vancouver to Toronto that has led some politicians, including Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson, and other dog owners to demand the breed be banned.
It will certainly be a long time before Natasha Twersky and her daughters are comfortable around pit bulls. Twersky was out for a walk with her
daughters, Jordanna Dodman, 9, and Tasia Dodman, 6, in a field near Devon Road when they were approached by Sheba and her puppies. Twersky told her daughters to stay still. "Something about this dog really freaked me out," Twersky said. The dogs ran up to the three and began barking "ferociously," then Sheba bit Tasia on
the hand and began tugging, Twersky said. Sheba then ran away and began chasing another child riding her bike. That girl had to jump over a fence to escape, Twersky said.
By the time Twersky and her terrified daughters reached Devon Road, the dogs were back and appeared to be following the trio. Twersky waved down apassing car and was driven to safety.
According to horse owner Judy Macdonald, the pit bulls then turned their attentions to her four-year-old Arabian show horse Ebony. Macdonald keeps three horses, all of whom are "extremely dog-friendly" because Macdonald owns two dogs herself. Macdonald said a neighbour heard the horse in distress and ran over to investigate.
"She lured the [dogs] to another neighbour. They contacted the SPCA," Macdonald said.The dogs were picked up by the SPCA about 30 minutes later.
Ebony suffered a severe gash and puncture wounds to her right shoulder and a ragged "huge tear" bite just under her tail. Vets have left the wounds open to aerate. The wounds were horrific, Macdonald said, and she wants the owner to pay her $600 vet bills.
"If you saw the pictures, you don't want to eat afterwards," she said. Macdonald said she called the SPCA twice that night but got no response
until she went to the office the next day with vet bills and witness statements.
"While I was there [the dog owner] was getting his dogs back," she recalled, adding that it wasn't until Friday that the SPCA actually visited her small farm. Macdonald says the dogs should never have been released until the SPCA investigated the attacks.
The pit bulls escaped again from the owner's yard on Sept. 9 and were picked up by a passer-by, and then escaped Sept. 10 when the SPCA corralled them on the Lougheed Highway. Sheba was found muzzled.
Sheba is now considered dangerous under Port Coquitlam's animal bylaw, but Macdonald has written to the city asking that off-leash fines be hiked and dangerous dogs be required to wear muzzles at all times.
After witnessing Tasia's bite, Twersky wants Sheba put down. "If the dog does not get put down, it will attack again," she said. Tasia is now terrified of dogs, Twersky said.
As for the owner, he told the Sunday Province that he will gladly pay the vet bill. Sheba has been moved from his friend's yard in PoCo to an
undisclosed site in Maple Ridge. He believes neighbourhood kids let the dogs out of the yard in the first place and that, no matter what Twersky and Macdonald say, his dog is not vicious. If Sheba was a savage animal, she
would have bitten the person who picked her up Sept. 9, he said.
In the meantime, John Ross of Langley said he was lucky a pit bull that attacked his young Labrador didn't try to maul him. Luke was grabbed by the throat by a pit bull Sept. 2 near 92 Avenue and 200th Street. The pit bull was on a retractable leash at the time and the dog's owner was powerless to stop the attack, Ross said. Ross says he had to stomp on the pit bull's head about a dozen times before it let go of Luke.
"They [pit bulls] should be muzzled," Ross said. "Next time, it could be a kid."