CALGARY – The owner of a pair of Akita dogs involved in a vicious attack last week now wants her dogs assessed before the decision is made to euthanize them.
The dogs were in a shared garage with their puppies when a Didsbury couple entered with their pet Beagle. The dogs turned on the couple, inflicting serious wounds to their chest, hands, thighs and legs.
The man and woman, both in their 20s, required over 620 stitches.
The dogs’ owner originally planned to surrender her animals but now would like more information.
“I’ve been in contact with her, she hasn’t changed her mind. This is just a better way to go,” says Mountain View County Peace Officer Amanda Stuhl.
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“This is going to allow her to make an informed decision this way. With everything that’s been in the media and everyone upset about the dogs, euthanizing the dogs, this will allow the behaviour testing to be done and allow her to make an informed decision and allows a judge to make a proper decision in court.”
Stuhl was at Animal Services in Calgary on Wednesday to fill out paper work to apply for a dangerous dog hearing for the animals. A date for that hearing will be determined this afternoon but Mountain View County are requesting the hearing be held on August 19th in Didsbury court.
The Akitas are currently being held at Animal Services in Calgary in a 10-day quarantine to check for rabies.
Once the quarantine is over, the dogs will undergo a behavioural assessment.
“What it would take to actually manage the dogs in public and to do that we’re going to look at the history of the dogs, we’re going to look at what happened in the incident to include the severity of the injuries, we’re going to look at the assessment and then we’re going to talk to the dog owner and we’re going to put it all together,” says Nikeae Michalchuk, Animal Services.
“The idea is that we want to come up with an outcome that is based on what is in the best interest of public safety.”
The assessment of the dogs will take place next week and will take approximately one week to complete.
The puppies, now 11 days old, are being held in quarantine with their mother. While their future has yet to be determined, they will also undergo a behavioural assessment but not until they are six-weeks-old.
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