Toronto dog owner seeks enforcement of on-leash bylaw after puppy attacked

Article content

A Toronto woman has collected 440 signatures on a change.org petition she started three weeks ago to get the city to enforce on-leash laws for dogs in residential areas.

Sarah Hansen said she took the action after she and her husband were walking their then-seven-month-old chow chow puppy, Benjy, last September around 9 p.m. along Hazelton Ave. — where they live — towards Davenport Rd..

Hansen claims an unleashed, medium-sized black poodle was walking in front of them with a female pet owner, who lives on the same street as her, and a male friend.

“I noticed the dog stopped, looked at Benjy and started charging towards Benjy, barking aggressively and then jumped on Benjy,” said Hansen.

“He’s about two to three times the size of Benjy. And when he started to jump on Benjy and tried to scratch his back, me and my husband got in between them and tried to pick up Benjy and pull Benjy towards my arms,” she said. “At the same time, we’re telling them, ‘Please, get your dog away from our dog! Control the dog. Get him off our dog.’ Basically we did get the dog off our dog. Benjy was howling because he was very scared.”

Recommended video

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

Benjy, who was taken to he vet, was mostly OK aside from having some anxiety and sore or sprained back paws.

“He has four layers of fur so I think that protected him from any bleeding,” said Hansen. “He was limping a bit because (the dogs’) feet got entangled together. I would say it was a level one (attack) based on this Dangerous Dog (Registry) level,” said Hansen, who added, “they have different levels like zero to five I believe of how serious (the attack is).”

Hansen said she immediately reported the attack to the city’s Dangerous Dog Registry four times, although the first time she didn’t have the offending dog owner’s address.

Hansen said this woman walks her poodle off-leash daily and she’s approached her probably six more times since the attack to leash the canine, but added that request has gone nowhere.

For now, she walks Benjy at other times.

“As (the petition) is growing, I’ve sent it to a few councillors,” said Hansen. “The one councillor that responded to me is Dr. Dianne Saxe (in the last few days). She’s an avid animal lover and she’s trying to help in any way she can.”

Saxe could not be reached for comment.