October 18, 2003
Photos from our High Park visit:
Dusty playing chase with Chinook and Cuan
10:00 a.m.
Bad news in the Small Dog Park last night: one of the other mini schnauzers was attacked by a german shepard on Brunswick Avenue.
Apparently, they were walking down the street and N noticed a german shepard 'prowling' around front yards several metres ahead. A man, presumably the dog's owner, was walking along with a choke collar, trying to coax it to come.
N sensed trouble. She crossed the street, but the german shepard spotted her dog nonetheless. He ran across the road. Simultaneously, N reached down to scooped up her dog and turned her back. She says that before she even had time to respond, the german shepard had jumped up on her and pulled her schnauzer out of her arms.
He started shaking the schnauzer by the scruff of her neck while N stood by in horror, finally hitting the german shepard over and over again. N was screaming, her little dog was screaming. The german shepards owner came over and started hitting him too.
N isn't sure why, but he finally dropped her dog. She sat on the front lawn of a house and cried, while her little schnauzer continued to scream. Neighbours came out of their houses. The german shepard's owner took his dog and, without a word to N, went back into his house.
N took her schnuazer home. The little dog was bleeding from a wound on her shoulder and covered in her own excrement. After N cleaned her up, she retreated shaking to her crate, where she cowered for hours. A visit to vet confirmed that aside from the puncture wounds, she wasn't seriously injured. Yesterday at the park, she was running around and playing like nothing had even happen (their very resilient, aren't they!)
N and her husband plan to take the vet bill over to the house where the german shepard's owner lives. They're going to call animal control and report the incident.
This incident disturbes me on many levels, not the least of which, Dusty and I walk by that house every day (I've changed our route). There has been a baby boom in our neighbourhood and there are tonnes of young infants and their mothers walking around on a nice day. A neighbour mentioned that they had seen that german shepard running loose before.
If that dog has a general prey drive, then it could have easily been a human infant who was injured. If he's dog-aggressive, then it's still a worry for every small dog owner in the neighbourhood.
Whenever I think about this little schnauzer, Dusty's friend, shaking and bleeding after being attacked by a big dog, my blood chills.
The other day, Dusty and I were walking down the sidewalk when a large dog lunged at us. The owner was standing on the corner, chatting on a cell phone. The dog kept coming, so I did the same thing that N did: picked up Dusty and turned away.
The dog was on an extend-a-lead. And he kept coming. He jumped up and I finally yelled. The women paused in her conversation and locked the extend-a-lead, pulled her dog back. She looked at me with a bemused expression: "Is your dog afraid?" she asked.
"Yes" I answered, in shock.
"Well, maybe you should socialize him better." she answered and continued on her merry way, chatting on the cell phone.
Some people should be allowed to own dogs, particularly large, dangerous ones.