The victim of a vicious dog attack is urging Flin Flon city council to revise its animal-control bylaw with greater clarity and community feedback in mind.
Angela Simpson said she has talked to numerous residents who have suffered serious dog bites only to see the canine neither deemed dangerous nor euthanized.
“When I look at that, myself personally, I’m seeing that the victim has less clout, I guess you could say, or less privilege, than a dog,” she told council at their meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Simpson encouraged council to reopen its animal-control bylaw and invite the public – including dog lovers and people who have been bitten – to provide their input.
She said she favours a bylaw that is “a little more black and white” and does not see an individual or committee make a decision some might view as “biased” or subjective.
“If it’s a black and white bylaw, then it makes your job a lot easier,” Simpson told council, “and I think in the minds of people in Flin Flon, there will be more of a feeling of safety than the way that bylaw reads today.”
Coun. Karen MacKinnon told Simpson council is looking into the bylaw at the committee level, but no decisions have been made.
If council is willing to host public consultations on the bylaw, Simpson said she would gladly attend meetings.
She said she herself loves dogs but shared her view that dangerous canines should not be given a second chance.
“If a dog, unprovoked, causes a medical concern to an individual, then I don’t think it should be a question that that dog should have the ability or the allowance to possibly [do] that again,” said Simpson, a former city councillor and current school trustee.
Simpson had to be flown to Winnipeg in June after suffering serious injury in a dog attack involving two canines.
At the time she was in the backyard of a Centennial Crescent residence for her job as a Manitoba Hydro meter reader.
While one dog involved in the incident was put down, Simpson indicated she was unsure why the city chose not to deem the second dog dangerous.
“I’m sure if my hand wasn’t over my head, he would have not just bit my ear and my head, he may have bit my neck and my aorta, but that’s beside the point,” she told council. “That’s the past.”
Simpson said people are still afraid in that neighbourhood and her understanding is that some residents needed to go on medication after witnessing “the ordeal.”
She added that she is thankful for the community support she received after the incident.
“They’ve been tremendously good,” Simpson said of residents.
The city last updated its animal-control bylaw in 2008 when a previous council gave the animal control officer authority to enter private property in order to carry out sections of the bylaw.
Bylaw specifics
Flin Flon’s animal-control bylaw speaks at length to the issue of dangerous dogs:
• The owner of a dog that “pursues, bites, or injures any person or animal is guilty of an offence.”
• The city’s chief licence inspector may hold a hearing to determine whether a dog is dangerous if the inspector “has reason to believe that a dog has caused or is likely to cause serious damage or injury.”
• After a hearing, the inspector may declare a dog dangerous by taking into account whether the dog has bitten, wounded or injured a person or animal; circumstances around previous biting or wounding incidents; and “whether the dog, when unprovoked, has shown a tendency to pursue, chase or approach in a menacing fashion” people on any public or private property.
• If a dog is declared dangerous, the inspector can further declare the animal be euthanized if it “poses an unacceptable risk of recurrent aggressive conduct” or if it has caused injuries or deaths to humans or animals that are “so severe in character, or so numerous that it would be inappropriate to allow the animal to live.”
• If a dog is declared dangerous but has not been ordered euthanized, the owner must meet criteria for housing the animal, including allowing it on public property only if it is muzzled, restrained by a chain or leash, and under the control of a competent person.
• Dog owners have the ability to appeal the inspector’s decisions and, during hearings, are entitled to hear all evidence presented.
