A man in Windsor blaming Animal Control for his dead dog

It's happening again. This time in Windsor - same shit, different day - and this time it was a child that was bit by the family dog - and the father is looking for anyone but himself to blame for his dog being dead. Although the animal control officer certainly doesn't seem to have done himself any favours either - but we're only hearing one side of the story.

It's being played out on Kijiji currently - in the words of the dog owner - he had an earlier version that actually named the animal control officer, and in the last sentence of the original posting he said -

"I would like to get more info on Garry Lunn for when the animal cruelty charge goes to court. So if anyone has more info for me please let me know and of course I will update things as I know more." -

and in the second, toned down version he said - "I am now trying to get Mr. so and so charged with animal cruelty, I want his license to be revoked and have him pay for what he put Max through. He tells me that I won’t win in court with my fine but I know I can."

So this is the story that this fellow - he hasn't said his name, has put on Kijiji:

"Some guy guess I’m not allowed to say his name is the Windsor N.S animal control. Why I’m not sure, but let me tell you what he has done to my family.

I have 3 children and had 3 Valley Bulldogs. Unfortunately my male dog Max had aggression towards people and animals when he had food.

One day on May/25/09 Max was in the fenced in yard eating a bone and my 8 year old decided to go and pat all the dogs, when she got to Max he jumped on her, knocked her down then bite her, and yes I know that was very wrong of him but she is fine and still loves him very much. As a parent I called animal control for help.

Mr. so and so wanted to place him with a lady that can barley take care of herself, but she said that he should be put down, so at the vet in Windsor (not mine) they said we need to wait for 10 days to make sure there would be no rabies.

Mr. so and so said he had a rabies kennel and would take him for the 10 days.

Meanwhile I put an ad out for max to get some help from a professional because of course I could not bear to have him put down. Unfortunately no one could help Max at that time. So I decided to get him fixed then have a dog trainer come to my house and help me train him. My vet said that was a great decision and getting him fixed would help a lot.

On June/04/09 Mr. so and so called me and said (time is up you need to come and get Max)

So when I called him back to set up a time he asked me if I maid the appointment with the vet. I said yes but he is getting fixed not put down. He then told me that I have to put him down because he bit my child. When I went to get max he then slapped me with a $337.00 fine and submitted to the court that Max be seized and put down immideitly.

While I was waiting for my fine I seen a dog chained up to a post, when I looked again I realized that it was Max so I asked Mr. so and so what he was feeding him, he said 2 kinds of food but would not tell me the brands. When I went to Max I could see that he lost about 10-15 pounds in 10 days as you can see in the pictures. The first picture was taken on May/26/09 the second on June/04/09 and he also stunk so bad that I almost got sick.

Also that rabies kennel was only a cage in his garage, so if you ask me I don’t think he was feed at all even when he said his kids feed him.

Later that day I got a call from a social worker wanting me to get Max out of the house right away, when I said no I am taking control of the situation she said that she was coming to my house in the morning with the R.C.M.P. Some how I knew that the morning would be that night, so I left with my girls and hid them till the next day.
She did come that night with the R.C.M.P and blocked off my driveway till about 9pm.
So as you can see I had no choice but to call the vet and put max down.

My vet thank god did not want to put him down because as they could see he is a great dog with an easy to fix problem. So they asked me to sign Max over to them and they would fix him and find him a home with someone who can rehabilitate him.

Mr. so and so thinks that he won this fight but he did not, I won by keeping Max alive."

So what I find interesting about this post is the line "let me tell you what he has done to my family"

What is the origin of this story? Didn't this man's people and dog aggressive dog bite his child? Where was he when this happen? Was the child and dog being supervised when it happened? Was the dog inside the house? Or maybe chained outside? Since the man acknowledges that the dog is people aggressive - that means there have obviously been previous incidents of aggression/biting before - how did any child get within biting distance of this dog? And this man is blaming someone other than himself for the death of this dog? And he's blaming the animal control officer for the death of the dog?

But oh wait - the dog isn't dead - he's feeling oh so smart - he's smuggled the dog somewhere so that it can bite another day somewhere else - and maybe someone else's child.

And I'm saying all this based upon what the man himself has said in his own Kijiji posting!

My next question that I would ask this fellow is something else he says in his posting - why did he wait until after his dog bit his child - to seek the help of a professional for what he says is an easy to fix problem, and have the dog neutered? Why didn't he feel the need to do that before his dog bit his child?

The animal control officer for the area - Gary Lunn - has said in newspaper articles - “People need to understand that if their dog bites, even while on their own property, they are still liable.”

This is the same area of Nova Scotia - Windsor, Nova Scotia to be precise, that a couple months ago we had the woman who killed the kittens because she couldn't find anyone who would take them off her hands - and she was then charged with animal cruelty - so its an area of the province that would seem to have a problem with empathy when it comes to companion animals.

The animal control officer has been very blunt actually in newspaper articles about what happens to dangerous dogs in his purview - after just an initial search, I found 2 articles from just this year - one article called "Calling for a tight leash on dangerous dogs", and another article called "Canine Complaints: Municipality addresses Fierce or dangerous bylaw" - maybe this guy doesn't follow his local news.

So long story short - I am confounded as to why - if he didn't want to have to pay a hefty fine for his dog biting his kid - why he even called Animal Control in the first place, and then why he thought his dog wouldn't be deemed vicious for his dog biting a child - and why he wasn't worried that his dog would be expected to be put down.

And then blaming the whole thing on the animal control officer - and then transferring all the evil onto the animal control officer and accusing him of animal cruelty because of the treatment his dog received while in the care of him - is unbelievable, really.

His dog bit his child because his dog is people and dog aggressive - and he had up to that point never done anything about it. Up until the point when animal control became involved - it appears as if he had never been a responsible dog owner - he had never even got the dog neutered. And he still has 2 more valley bull dogs at home. I wonder what their status is. If I was the social worker who arrived with the RCMP that evening that he had hidden his children elsewhere - I'd be taking a close look at those 2 dogs and seeing what kind of disposition they have.

What a mixed up world we live in.