Dog bites man isn’t a story, the old news adage goes. But dog bites candidate?
Conservative candidate Goldie Ghamari found herself on the sharp end of a constituent’s dog this week while door-knocking in Carleton. Ghamari, the incumbent MPP, tweeted about the incident on Tuesday.
“I got bit by a dog today while doorknocking. It was on my thigh right under my bottom so I couldn’t even check the damage until I got home b/c I was in public & w/ my volunteers. The woman just apologized & walked away without giving any info,” Ghamari tweeted.
She posted a photo of the wound on Twitter that showed several small punctures where the animal’s teeth had punctured her skin.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else, including a child. But the optics of an MPP calling bylaw on a constituent is pretty bad. However, as a dog owner myself, I’d never let my dog do anything like this. My dog has been sleeping on top of the bite since I got home.”
“I’m really torn. I think I’m going to have to call bylaw because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I didn’t even realize how much blood was on my pants until I got home, because they were black.”
In a phone interview Friday night, Ghamari said she was campaigning in Findlay Creek when she spoke to a woman who was out walking her dog. The two were speaking at a socially safe distance because of COVID, when the dog lunged at Ghamari’s leg.
“I didn’t look at the dog. I didn’t reach down to pet it. I didn’t make eye contact … and the next thing I know I see it lunge at me and bite me on my thigh,” Ghamari said.
“She said, ‘Oh my god, did my dog bite you?’ I said, ’Yes! He did bite me!
“I was in shock. It was kind of embarrassing too because I was out with my campaigners and I couldn’t stop to see how bad it was.”
Ghamari described the dog as a knee-high, white poodle-type dog. It was still snarling and lunging as the woman apologized and walked away.
It wasn’t until Ghamari got home that she realized her pants were soaked with blood. She never thought to ask for the woman’s contact information.
After her tweet, Ghamari was contacted by an Ottawa Bylaw on Twitter who urged her to file an incident report, which she did.
“I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, but a lot of people called me. Even my family called me because they were concerned.”
On Thursday, she was contacted by Ottawa Public Health for a follow-up. And after explaining what happened, OPH said she would likely be OK and the risk of the dog having rabies was very low.
“Shout out to Ottawa Public Health,” Ghamari said. “They were so helpful.”
Ghamari dismissed the bite as “an occupation hazard,” but worried about what would have happened if the dog had bitten a child.
Dog owners whose animals attack can be charged under the Dog Owner’s Liability Act and face fines of up to $10,000 and six months in jail.
“Charges can be brought against any dog owner whose dog has bitten or attacked or behaved in a manner that poses a menace to the safety of persons or domestic animals or where the dog owner did not exercise reasonable precautions to prevent a dog from doing any of the aforementioned,” the city’s website explains.
Ghamari was first elected in 2018, easily winning in Carleton by more than 13,000 votes, more than double her closest opponent.
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