A Toronto family faces eviction on Wednesday, three months after their dog got into a fight outside their Toronto apartment building and only nine days after the Landlord and Tenant Board approved the removal.
“I think it’s crazy. Who can leave in a week?” said Sandy Afara, who owns Bruce, a four-year-old German Shepherd.
In February, the dog was being walked outside the north Toronto apartment by Ghada Afrara, Sandy’s mother.
She had Bruce on a short leash when another dog from the building, unleashed, came bounding into the parking lot toward Bruce.
“He got excited, the dog ran up to him,” said Ghada, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with her daughter in the building.
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In the encounter, Bruce bit the other dog and caused injuries that had to be treated at an animal hospital.
Ghada said she attempted to find out the condition of the animal and to show concern, but she was rebuffed.
Subsequently, the building owner, Pianosi Brothers Construction Ltd., applied for an order to terminate the family’s tenancy.
On Monday, Landlord and Tenant Board member Louise Horton issued an order requiring the family to leave the apartment by Wednesday.
“If the unit is not vacated … the landlord may file this order with the Court Enforcement Office (Sheriff) so that the eviction may be enforced.”
The eviction order takes effect in mid-May even though the family’s rent is paid up until the end of June.
Ghada said she is beside herself about the notice, fearful that she and her daughter will be left homeless and worried that if forced to leave the apartment her mother and father living above won’t get the care they need.
“All I’m asking is to buy time,” she said in tears while awaiting the results of an appeal of the order. She has agreed to move the dog to a temporary home away from the apartment complex.
When the apartment building owners were asked by Global News if they would reconsider the eviction on that basis, a property manager responded “no comment.”
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Ghada said she was told by the owners that the eviction was not negotiable.
Sandy said it’s unfair that her family is being punished because another dog owner wasn’t following explicit building rules that dogs must be kept leashed.
“We wouldn’t be in this situation at all,” she said, had the other owner leashed her dog.
“We’re good people.”
With files from Lucas Di Rocco
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