Cruelty charges to be laid after dog's teeth smashed out in dispute

[risestar]

By Deborah Tetley, Calgary HeraldMay 16, 2009

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/topstories/2009/05/15/tp-cgy-beau-dog-attack.jpg

Okotoks Mounties say animal cruelty charges are pending after a neighbour dispute over a barking dog led to the canine being bashed on the muzzle and losing several teeth.

But the neighbour, who admits hitting Bo, a four-year-old Great Pyrenees, over the head with a cane, says he was acting in self-defence.

When Bo's owner, Matthew Pacaud, arrived home to his mother's acreage in Okotoks Tuesday night, the dog wasn't there to greet him as usual.

Then Pacaud noticed broken teeth, blood splatters and feces on the doorstep. The gruesome discovery prompted him to search for Bo, who he found hiding in the garage. When Pacaud, 25, noticed blood around the dog's mouth, he peeked inside.

"I pulled up his lip and all the teeth on the top and front of his mouth were gone and he was bleeding.Several teeth along the bottom gum were broken. The left side of his face is pretty mangled up."

At first Pacaud thought Bo had been in an accident.

But then he went inside and listened to a phone message from his neighbour.

"It's half past 10, your f------dog has been barking, you inconsiderate, horrible peasants," is the voice-mail message.

RCMP Const. Bryan O'Rourke said several charges, including injuring an animal and trespassing, are pending against the neighbour.

"Animal cruelty charges are pending,"O'Rourke said Friday, adding officers found blood, feces and several teeth on Pacaud's property.

RCMP decided to charge the neighbour after interviewing him Tuesday night.

"This is a man who didn't go through proper avenues when dealing with a noisy neighbour," O'Rourke said. "The guy lost his temper."

Bo spent Friday undergoing surgery to remove three broken teeth, bring the total number of lost teeth to eight.

Pacaud said the vet was shocked by Bo's injuries.

"The vet figures he was hit with a piece of steel pipe, or the blunt side of an axe," he said.

"He said it must have been an overhand swing coming down on the top of his muzzle to knock the teeth out the way it did."

But the neighbour, Nigel Warren, says he hit the dog with his walking stick in self-defence.

The man said he went to Pacaud's house Tuesday morning to complain about "incessant" barking after being awoken at 6:15 a. m.

"It's bedtime and we hear bark, bark, bark,"Warren said. "It's morning time, bark, bark, bark. The dogs bellow all day long. It's ruining our lives."

The 64-year-old said when no one answered, he tried to leave and became terrified by Bo, who is 68 kilograms.

"I thought the dog was going to bite my butt.He's massive with huge jaws,"said Warren. "I needed to defend myself so I took my walking stick and whacked him in the mouth and then I got out of there."

He saw teeth fly out of the dog's mouth, Warren said.

"When I hit him, the stick caught in his mouth, so I pulled the stick and his teeth came out. It was a tug of war. I wanted my stick and he wanted me."

Bo underwent surgery Friday to have several broken teeth removed, Pacaud said, adding the dog is traumatized by the incident.

"He cries when you touch him and he's really timid, and cowering."

Pacaud, who says he has res-cued many animals over the years--including abandoned ducks on Deerfoot Trail and orphaned hawks he takes to sanctuaries--is looking for justice for his dog.

"I just can't let this go and let somebody get away with something like this,"he said. "He's my best friend and someone hurt him."

Warren said the situation spiralled out of control.

"I did not go there with every intent on whacking the teeth out of a dog.

"I was protecting myself from the surging jaws of a large dog."

dtetley@tHeHerald.Canwest.Com

[risestar]

I first read about this this morning and got very angry. The town where this happened is only 20 minutes away.

This person should be fined very heavily and should be banned from owning animals for the balance of his life. Although I must admit that my first thought was that he should be rendered to Thailand and introduced to a good caning himself.

[Caelum]

Let's face it! Pyr verses a 64 year old man with a cane? Pyr win's! Charge the old Bast---!

[2ndPyr]

That is so very very sad. Just makes me want to cry.

We have a neighbor behind us who is a pain in the neck. I wouldn't put this kind of action past him. But we're never home with our Pyr but maybe one week if that much out of the month. So he rarely hears Sebastian barking, but occasionally when he does, he yells (and he does this to all neighbors) "shut that dog up!"

We often want to go tell him that we lived here with our dogs before HE DID, and if he doesn't like it to MOVE TO THE COUNTRY!

Poor Bo.

[Jewel]

Based on the facts stated in the story, the dog could not have been in any way vicious. For that old man to be able to make direct contact with that kind of force right on the face of the dog, it sounded to me like the dog was just standing there not expecting to be hit. I don't believe a word of that self defense stuff. If a 68 kg dog was really trying to attack a man, there would be little a man can do, let along having the time to swing a cane with dead aim. The authorities are right to charge him with cruelty. He was mad and he took it out on the animal.

A few years ago we had a neighbor who had a doberman puppy that would start crying pathetically at 1 a.m. or at 5 a.m. We figured the owner was probably a resident at the local hospital and had 12 hour shifts starting at odd hours. So the dog was being shoved out in the yard at strange hours and left there. It would cry and carry on for long periods of time because it was all alone. Several times I thought about calling the police after having been woken up because of the dog's cries but I didn't want the dog to end up at the pound. It never crossed my mind to smack the dog on the head!!!!!!!!!!

[risestar]

A little more of this has come to light, it turns out that the dog was actually struck with a large, heavy walking stick, and not a small cane. This would have been a two hand over the head and down blow to the animals muzzle. This would have killed a human, if he had been struck in such a manner.

The person was trespassing and attacked the dog on its own property, in fact mere steps from the front door of the house.

The sick thing about this is that our animal cruelty laws are 80 years out of date and animals are considered simple property for the most part, so this piece of dirt will get fined and likely barred from owing animals for a period of time, but little else.

There does seem to be a fair bit of media attention and he is clearly identified by name, so likely he will need to clear out of town as this kind of thing follows people for years afterwards as there is little that disgusts people more than people doing harm to an animal.

There has been a number of sick things happening out here, including a littler of new born lab puppies dumped into an outdoor public outhouse in -25 degree weather, a kid microwaving a persons cat after he broke into her house and another kid dragging a collie behind his car for several miles to its death.

People that do these sick things are clearly disturbed and they need to start jailing these people

Another version of this story is here http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/05/15/dog-attack-neighbour-foothills-calgary.html

[risestar]

Look like the RCMP are charging this person with animal cruelty. Up to five years in the slammer.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2009/05/18/dog-attack-charges-animal-cruelty-alberta-neighbour.html

[nick's spirit]

Thanks for the update and a big congratulations to RCMP!! They knew something didn't add up with this guy's story.
What amazed me were some of the readers comments at the end of the second story. But it sounds like most people are bright enough to realize what might have really happened. No Pyrenees would stand still & get whacked with a "walking cane"...
Hope Bo has a good recovery...wouldn't be surprised if he is now a very defensive guy. Who would blame him.

[risestar]

Also, its extremely rare that a Pyr is aggressive towards people. The defense that the dog attacked him is also very suspect. Being that the RCMP pressed charges so quickly, its likely that there was no evidence of being attacked on this person. This is little more than a last ditch defense once he realized that he did serious damage to the dog

Thanks for the update and a big congratulations to RCMP!! They knew something didn't add up with this guy's story.
What amazed me were some of the readers comments at the end of the second story. But it sounds like most people are bright enough to realize what might have really happened. No Pyrenees would stand still & get whacked with a "walking cane"...
Hope Bo has a good recovery...wouldn't be surprised if he is now a very defensive guy. Who would blame him.