A pet rottweiler “securely housed” by a Perth council following the savage mauling of its owner in the city’s south has been put to sleep, authorities have confirmed.
Staff at the City of Cockburn’s Animal Management Facility have managed Harlem for more than five weeks after the dog turned on Nikita Piil at her home in Success on September 16.
The council confirmed on Thursday that the dog “has now been euthanised”.
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“The procedure was completed on Thursday morning by a qualified veterinarian as humanely as possible for the dog,” Cockburn’s head of community safety and ranger services Michael Emery said.
Harlem, along with Piil’s other pet rottweiler, Bronx, left the 31-year-old in hospital with major injuries and health complications. Bronx was put down shortly after the attack.
Piil had until last Saturday to comply with a number of strict measures if she wanted to keep Harlem after the pet was declared a “dangerous dog” following an investigation into the attack.
She officially relinquished ownership of the dog to the City of Cockburn on Friday, sealing the animal’s fate.
“While the city would always prefer to find solutions that do not require animals to be put down, in this case the dog will need to be euthanised in the interest of public safety,” Emery said previously.
“The procedure will be done by a suitably qualified veterinarian at our Animal Management Facility.”
Piil’s love for her dogs, and animals in general, was obvious, with glowing social media posts showing how smitten she was.
“She loved and adored her dogs, and her friends and family have witnessed how much they loved her too,” her sister Natasha Piil wrote in a GoFundMe launched to cover her medical bills.
Police who raced to Piil’s home initially deployed a Taser to try and deter Bronx but were forced to fire a gun when it became clear Piil’s life was under threat.
The woman suffered bite wounds, major blood loss and also suffered complications from canine bacterial infection.
Family revealed Piil almost died on several occasions and was previously fighting to keep her arm.
‘All I could do was watch’
During the attack, neighbours had raced to help with leaf blowers, hoses and bats but were no match for the sizeable dogs.
“I didn’t have a knife, I didn’t have anything really good to take this dog out,” neighbour Bryn Spencer said.
“I only had a bat.
“All I could really do was just watch this girl get mauled apart.”
The decision to keep the winnings as a secret was made in collaboration with his wife.
