A 36-year-old Halifax man is facing various charges after a dog was injured and its owner assaulted.
Lorne Wilson says he was watching television at home last evening on Davison Street in Halifax, when he heard someone yelling.
“Just as I walked out the front door, he was in the proceeding event of throwing a wooden sign from our garden at our house,” he said.
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The family’s 10-year-old female Chihuahua, Eugenie, was outside on a fenced-in porch with their second dog, a male Chihuahua.
“It struck her right in the face,” Wilson said. “At the moment there, I thought she was dead.”
Wilson says he confronted the man, who was walking his own dog. He says the man kept referring to the signs the family recently put on their lawn, which asked owners to keep their dogs off their garden.
“I was very upset and I was very, very confrontational with this person,” he said. “I caught him red-handed. He was trying to leave and I was stopping him and blocking him.”
Wilson says the man threw another sign at him, but he wasn’t injured.
Halifax Regional Police responded to a dispute call at around 7:15 p.m. and arrested the male suspect without incident, while animal services took possession of the suspect’s dog.
Meanwhile, Eugenie, was rushed to an animal hospital in a police van. Wilson says the dog was sedated and bleeding heavily all through the night.
“She’s lost her eye,” he said. “She has a completely shattered lower jaw that can’t be repaired.”
Wilson says he and his wife, Natalie, have some difficult discussions they need to have with their veterinarian about Eugenie’s condition.
The suspect has been charged with assault with a weapon, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and injuring or endangering an animal. He was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in Halifax Provincial Court on Nov. 21.