Tot survives 2-dog attack

[spidey]

His office has nonetheless concluded that the couple were "responsible owners," who took good care of the 16-month-old Rottweilers, a male and a female that appear to be from the same litter.

The dogs had food, water and shelter and their owners had attended obedience classes with them, Mr. Gillis said. And on learning about what happened, the "very distraught" couple immediately surrendered them to authorities.

It drives me crazy that they are trying to portray people who kept dogs outside in an insecure pen (they had escaped before) as "responsible owners". I'd bet money that the "obedience classes" were a single session at PetSmart or something equivalent. Providing the bare necessities of life does NOT make someone a responsible owner - had these dogs been owned responsibly, they would have been secured properly (and, frankly, would have been inside somewhere and not outside during an Ontario winter, IMO).

Also, no responsible breeder would have placed littermates in the same home.

[MissMary]

It is stories like this that helped me do the right thing with Dozer and Sadie. When I read these stories I know I did the right thing with Dozer tho it was hard and I miss him. Also these stories help keep me on track with Sadie. I find lots to learn from such stories..

[Dimitri]

Originally Posted by Canadianrotti

I live next to Hamilton, and this incident is a shame. I have heard more about what happened than the origional article presents. They found the owner, he lives in a house next to the park, the dogs broke through the fence that is adjacent to the park. The guy that owns the dogs has also been given citations in the past for having dogs running at large.

I will let you know about stuff that I hear on the local news about this one. such a damn shame!

I'm glad the police are going to launch the crimminal investigation into this matter. Personally the owner was clearly out of line and irresponsible.

[Rene Allegrini]

Article and link provided by fightBSL and Jodi Preis.

Police intensify Rottweiler investigation (Ontario, Canada)

globeandmail.com: Police intensify Rottweiler investigation

With a report from Omar El Akkad in Hamilton and Michelle Collins
Hamilton police have launched a criminal investigation into the savage Christmas Day schoolyard mauling of a toddler by two Rottweilers that almost killed the child before an onlooker intervened.

In the event the owners of the marauding dogs are prosecuted, the likeliest charge would be criminal negligence causing bodily harm, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment, Detective Constable Cory Gurman said yesterday.

"At this point in the investigation that's about what we would be looking at. I'm not sure if there's anything else that would be applicable."
The boy, identified yesterday as Jeron Zhang, was in the care of a young woman believed to be a relative and was playing in the yard of east Hamilton's Memorial Elementary School when he was attacked by the Rottweilers.

Jeron was saved when local resident Mark Berka, returning home from Christmas dinner at his sister's house, heard cries for help and ran to the schoolyard. After a lengthy tussle with the dogs, Mr. Berka, 41, managed to pry the boy free and help hustle him to the safety of another neighbour's home.

Badly bitten, Jeron is now recovering in hospital after surgery.
The two dogs, meanwhile, were captured and are in the city's animal shelter, scheduled to be euthanized in about a week's time.

The initial police response was that the attack appeared to involve just a municipal bylaw infraction.
But that changed as a result of fresh information generated during the blizzard of local news coverage, Det. Constable Gurman said.
"Bylaws will cover animals that run free, but if this is something that occurs over and over because of negligence, then that's one reason police may become involved."

Beyond saying they have been "co-operative," Det. Constable Gurman would not identify the owners of the Rottweilers, nor say whether the couple are already known to police.

Neighbourhood residents, however, paint a picture of two aggressive dogs that repeatedly escaped from their backyard pen on Dunsmure Road and ran amok. They say the couple had little contact with their neighbours.

Among the witnesses are residents of the house adjoining the schoolyard, where the bleeding boy was taken after the attack. Just days earlier, they said, the two Rottweilers had run up onto the house porch in pursuit of a cat and cornered one of the adults living in the home.

In an interview, Hamilton bylaw-enforcement chief Jim Gillis said it was unclear whether that incident involved the same dogs.
"There's more than just these two Rottweilers in the neighbourhood; there's a couple of other families that own Rottweilers," he said.
"It could have been them that got out, it's hard to say."

As for the owners of the dogs that attacked the boy this week, "they took all the precautions necessary" to keep them confined, Mr. Gillis said. Either way, the 16-month-old dogs appear to have had a certain notoriety.
When Cameron Brookhouse, a neighbour, read of the attacks in the morning paper, he said he suspected the two Rottweilers in the house behind him were responsible. "I felt sick," he said.

In November, he said, he saw one of the animals running loose, threatening and finally knocking down an elderly woman as she walked her own dog.
For that, the couple paid a $125 fine and agreed to fix a gap in their fence that appeared yesterday to have been recently repaired.

Mr. Brookhouse said he saw an SPCA worker at his neighbour's house on Tuesday morning, who asked where the Rottweilers were. The owner didn't appear to know, Mr. Brookhouse said.

In yet another account, a resident who lives near the dogs' owners said the animals jumped out at him on a couple of occasions when he was walking his dog in the alley behind the house. He said he began carrying a baseball bat for protection.

Had the child been killed, it would have been a rare tragedy. No national data appears to have been collated, but in the United States, fatal dog attacks from 1979 to 1998 totalled slightly more than 300, an annual average of about 15, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pit bulls and Rottweilers accounted for more than half of those 300 deaths, the institute found, which was one reason Ontario instituted its ban on pit bulls last year.
That law, currently the focus of a constitutional challenge, "prohibits individuals from owning, breeding, transferring, importing or abandoning pit bulls."

A grandfather clause in the legislation tolerates pit bulls that are already owned, but insists they be muzzled in public places.

[spidey]

The picture in the Toronto paper this morning of the filthy back yard pen these dogs were kept in cemented in my mind the fact that these were NOT dogs who were kept responsibly.

[Obelix]

I want to know what is going on.Good and accurate information is a VERY valuable thing.We ALL can learn from mistakes others made.
Please Rene keep us informed and and THANK YOU!!!

[Rene Allegrini]

Originally Posted by Obelix

I want to know what is going on.Good and accurate information is a VERY valuable thing.We ALL can learn from mistakes others made.
Please Rene keep us informed and and THANK YOU!!!

Without the help of the fightBSL group and some very hard working members, it would be almost impossible to keep up with all the Alerts and legislation being considered across the country. A more organized group you won't find. They are tireless in their efforts to keep members abreast of what is happening across the country. I feel fortunate to have been able to join their group.