Responses to dog bite fall short. Pet owner, police, city enforcement office should have acted much sooner | Opinion

OPINION

By Ian Pattison

DOG BITES are a fact of life. Ever since mankind domesticated wolves there have been incidents where the animals’ instincts kick in and humans suffer the consequences.

It is estimated that there are some 500,000 dog bites in Canada each year. So there is nothing unusual about this but some cases do stand out. The case of Willow Royer is one such case raising a host of so-far unanswered questions, especially about the behaviour of the dog owner.

By now many in Thunder Bay will be aware of news reports about six-year-old Willow’s run-in with a dog. Next-door at a Wiley Street playmate’s house for a sleepover on the evening of Aug. 6, she spotted a woman walking a leashed dog and asked the owner if it was alright to pat it.

What happened next was captured in part on video surveillance and it is shocking on a number of fronts.

By all accounts the dog suddenly lunged at Willow, latched onto her head with its teeth and tried to drag her down the sidewalk. The owner managed to get the dog off but it clamped onto Willow’s foot before the owner finally pulled it away.

“The dog was shaking me like a toy,” Willow told a reporter.

What happened next is what places this incident in a case by itself. As seen on video, while a badly bleeding Willow is heard screaming, the woman calmly walks away as she admonishes what appears to be her mixed breed dog. She does not look back.

“You're bad,” she said. “Why would you do that? You are not going outside for a while.”

With that the woman and the dog disappear out of camera range.

Meanwhile, the mother of Willow’s friend, who had gone into her house momentarily to get some water, frantically called Willow’s family who ran next-door. Willow was still screaming as her brother picked her up, her blood soaking her hair and shirt.

An ambulance was called and Willow was taken to the regional hospital where she was treated for lacerations to her face, scalp and foot. One bite narrowly missed her right eye. An appointment with an eye specialist is upcoming as Willow is complaining of blurred vision.

ASIDE FROM the dog owner’s seemingly nonchalant behaviour, walking away from this screaming, bleeding child, is the feckless response from authorities.

Willow’s father, Adam Royer, says he called police who told him this was not a criminal incident and that he should call the city bylaw enforcement office.

According to Toronto criminal defence lawyer Jonathan Pyzer on his firm’s website, “It is possible to be charged with a criminal offence in Ontario if your dog bites or attacks someone.

“The Dog Owners’ Liability Act (DOLA), first enacted in 1990, makes dog owners potentially liable for damages caused by a bite or an attack, sought by the plaintiff through civil proceedings. As well, pursuant to DOLA dog owners can face provincial offence charges.”

Conviction can bring a maximum fine of $10,000, six months in jail or both.

“Dog owners can also be criminally charged under the Criminal Code of Canada,” writes Pyzer. “Historically, dog owners in Ontario have been charged and convicted of criminal negligence and criminal negligence causing bodily harm in relation to incidents of dog bites and/or attacks.”

So it would certainly appear that this case qualified for police attention. But police didn’t bother to visit the Royer home, Adam Royer told me. He also revealed the woman is allowed to keep the dog but that it must be muzzled in public.

By comparison, Toronto police arrested a 38-year-old woman in March after her dog attacked and severely injured a child at a park. She was taken into custody and charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and failing to prevent a dog from biting or attacking.

That is not the end of questions about official response to a child injured by a dog whose owner left the scene.

Royer said he followed police advice and called the City of Thunder Bay Municipal Enforcement Services. He told a reporter it took three days for an officer to come to the house. On his Facebook page he wrote that this happened after he called the OPP when city police refused to act. He said OPP called city police who he assumed called enforcement. The bylaw office confirmed it is investigating but a spokesman said it could not comment further.

Royer has since revealed that the woman turned herself into the city enforcement office four days after the incident but that the family still doesn’t know her identity.

Royer also expressed frustration at being told by the bylaw office that it is indeed up to police to consider pressing charges, not bylaw enforcement.

“The police should have been on it. I’m furious!” he wrote on his Facebook page.

This is not an unreasonable man. He has said he wishes no ill-will to the woman and that neither he nor his daughter want the dog to be put down. “But the owner has to be held accountable.” he told a reporter. He mostly wants to understand how she could just walk away, and to know whether the dog’s vaccinations are up to date.

WILLOW AND her mother have had trouble sleeping since the incident, Royer said. She doesn’t want to go near the family dog with which she has grown up and she is wary if anyone comes to the house.

“We're positive she's going to need counselling and therapy for this,” Royer told a reporter.

Dogs can be unpredictable. We’ve all heard stories about dog owners who say their pet would never harm anyone and then express shock when they do.

The Humane Society of Canada estimates that a Canadian suffers a dog bite every 60 seconds. Children between the ages of five and eight are particularly susceptible and bites to the head, face and neck are common.

What is uncommon is the apparent absence of concern and compassion exhibited by this dog owner who may have been as surprised as anyone that her pet would do this. All the more reason to show her responsibility for the incident.

Ian Pattison is retired as editorial page editor of The Chronicle-Journal, but still shares his thoughts on current affairs. You can email him at iPatPoint29@gmail.com.