THE PROVINCE
Latest News

Boy taken from home before
DOG MAULING: Parents place some blame on owners of visiting dogs

Ethan Baron
The Province

Sunday, January 02, 2005

The mother of a Maple Ridge boy mauled to death by a dog says he was once seized for neglect by the children and families ministry -- then returned two years ago to the home where he was killed.

The three-year-old was taken after a public health nurse judged him to be underweight, his mother told The Province.

"They said I was neglecting him, which was totally on the contrary," she said. "He had something called reflux and my doctor diagnosed it, but I didn't know that you could get medication for it, right? He never said nothing to me.

"He was underweight, right, because he was constantly puking and puking and puking. I went to the emergency room three times, I went to my doctor three times, I went to the care clinic three times. They all said, 'No, he's OK, he'll grow out of it.'"

Her other children -- boys aged seven and 10 and a girl, 9 -- had also been seized at one point when she was arrested for possession of crystal methamphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, she said. All four children were returned two years ago, she added.

Cody died Monday after being mauled by a dog at his home.

The family's Rottweiler and border collie, plus two Rottweilers his mother was keeping for a friend, were euthanized last week.

Cody's mother said she was asleep when a friend of her boyfriend's put Cody in the living room without barricading its doorway to keep the dogs out.

"They took Cody, gave him a drink and everything, then put him in the living room so he can watch cartoons and be with all his Christmas presents. And I guess the gate wasn't put back properly."

She says the three other children found Cody's body.

"They came screaming, waking me up saying, 'The dogs have gotten Cody.'

"It was no wrongdoing on myself. It was a freak accident."

The ministry has since taken the three other children, who have a different father than Cody, from Cody's mother. She is attempting to get them back.

"I'm grief-stricken over Cody," she said. "It's unbearable. I still have three kids that are alive and they do need their mom because they've gone through the most tragic thing a kid can go through."

The mother said she only learned last week that the previous owner of the visiting Rottweilers used to feed them raw meat.

"They wanted them vicious so they'd be guard dogs. I was not aware of this or I would never, ever let them stay in the house."

Cody and the family Rottweiler, Baby, used to lie on the couch together, she said.

"The two of them would have their heads on the pillow watching cartoons."

She let Cody play with all three Rottweilers while under her supervision, she admitted, and says "they would lick Cody like he was an ice-cream cone."

According to Cody's father, Martin Anger, the visiting Rottweilers were warehouse guard dogs.

"For somebody to ask to store two dogs like that in a dwelling where there's four children is pretty sick to start with, I feel -- and it's pretty sick for the mother to accept it," the 40-year-old dad told The Province.

Anger said he did not think Cody's mother should be charged.

She's got enough guilt to live with," he said.

It will likely be weeks before police determine whether anyone will face charges of criminal negligence causing death, said Ridge Meadows RCMP Cpl. Rhonda Stoner.

Ministry spokeswoman Theresa Lumsdon said she was unable to comment on the specific case, but said staff conduct "a careful assessment" of parents' ability to look after their kids.

"People's circumstances do change over time. We can't reliably predict 100 per cent of the time what people are going to do. We do want them to get on with their lives," Lumsdon said.