BOZEMAN — Dog parks are supposed to be safe places where our pets can play, but just a few weeks ago, one family had to say goodbye to their pup after it was brutally attacked at the Gallatin County Regional Dog Park.
“They were confident she was going to make it through. All of her wounds were very clean, they stopped spreading, everything like that,” says Lacey Johnson. “They took her home, and then an hour later she passed away on the couch next to my dad.”
Lacey is a sixth-generation Montanan and an animal lover. She tells me about four years ago, she helped her dad pick out a dog.
“She was an accidental litter from Livingston. And we actually went originally to pick up her sister, but Junebug chose us. She wouldn't let us leave without her, so we took her home instead,” says Lacey.
Junebug was her name. A toy Aussie.
“My dad loved that little dog. I always joked that he loved that dog more than his children, so it’s been really hard on him,” Lacey says.
Lacey tells me Junebug loved to swim. So her father began taking her to the Gallatin County Regional Dog Park, where she could play in the water leash free. But on Aug. 2, Junebug's favorite hobby became a dog owner's worst nightmare.
“Junebug was standing with my dad waiting for him to throw the toy, and they just I guess started attacking her,” says Lacey.
WATCH: Lacey Johnson describes attack on Junebug at Gallatin County Regional Park
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Lacey tells me two dogs tag teamed Junebug and her father.
“At one point, the dog had her by the stomach and was shaking her around like a toy. My dad was screaming at the owners to get his dogs,” she says.
But Lacey says by the time the owner got his dogs and then left without a word, the damage was already done: “Junebug was bit on the hip, on the shoulder, and had a really nasty stomach incision.”
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At the vet, things looked hopeful at first. But after four days of trying to treat infections, Junebug passed away at home next to her dad.
I asked Lacey how her parents were doing. She told me, “They’re a wreck. They're traumatized, and they’re always going to have that in the back of their mind; it’s going to scar them for the rest of their life.”
Lacey Johnson
I asked Lacey, who is a dog mother to Lem and a mother to five-month-old Otto, how her parents' situation has impacted her.
“It’s really scary for me. Because I think about not only what if it was Lem but what if it was Otto? I was already avoiding dog parks in general but now even more so. I was just walking her up Sourdough and I was on edge the whole time just like, ‘What if this is the day?’ You know?”
Cassidy Powers
The owner of the attacking dogs left the scene that day and still has yet to be identified. But Lacey described the dogs as stockier cattle dogs / hound-like mixes with large prick ears. One was copper/chestnut and the other was black with white markings and sleek smooth fur.
But Lacey says she doesn’t want to discriminate against dog breeds.
“People are always so quick to say, ‘Oh it’s pit bulls or German Shepherds,' or anything like that. And it’s not a breed issue—it’s an owner issue,” she says.
And Lacey says a lot of that has to do with poor training. Some advice she was given when she first got a dog that she still follows to this day?
“Treat your dog as if it’s part of your family, but train it like it’s still a wolf because you never know.”
