XL bully owner condemns police kennels
AN XL bully owner was ‘beyond livid’ to discover her pet ‘could have died’ after being seized by West Midlands Police.
Drako was ‘critical’ after contracting parvovirus during his six-week stay in kennels and was ‘severely underweight and covered in sores’ when he was returned.
Heather Kenny said it was “an absolute joke” that she had been kept in the dark about her dog’s brush with death.
The four-year-old dog had been taken on February 4 after the mumof-three contacted the force to say she had missed the cut-off date for the exemption process.
When Drako was returned to the family’s Yardley Wood home on March 21, he had lost a significant amount of weight and had multiple sores on his body, including one on his leg that was bandaged.
Ms Kenny told the Birmingham Post she had got in touch with the force to ask for advice on what to do about the missed the deadline to apply for a certificate of exemption to keep her XL Bully dog when new rules came into force.
She said: “I didn’t want to just ignore it and then get stopped while we were on walk or something, so I called 101. They told me they’d need to take him to be assessed and once that had been done and he was neutered, I could have him back while we were waiting for the court dates.” On the day Drako was due to return home, Ms Kenny received a call to say he had had parvovirus – a highly contagious and potentially deadly disease – during his stay and had been ‘critical’ at one point. “I couldn’t believe they hadn’t told me before, he could have died,” said Ms Kenny. “When he came home, he wasn’t with a police officer – she said she was nothing to do with the police, she just brought them home – but she said she’d only ever known one other dog to survive parvo.
“She warned me he’d lost a significant
amount of weight but the state of him was ridiculous.
“I got him in at the vets for a check-up.
“I asked if they’d re-dress his leg so it had a fresh bandage on but they said they couldn’t redress it as it needed stitches – he had a hole in his leg and it was all infected. He’s on antibiotics for it now. They also said he was severely dehydrated.”
The dinner lady, 31, has lodged a complaint and also plans to dispute the currently undisclosed boarding fee she expects to be billed with during her upcoming court appearance to finalise the exemption.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “The dog was initially seized and taken into kennels as the owner failed to comply with the XL bully legislation.
“The dog was later diagnosed with canine parvovirus and we arranged for treatment to fight off the potentially fatal disease. It was organised for the owner to be reunited with the dog following successful treatment. We have since spoken to the owner around the circumstances.
“As part of the national legislation they will be charged with possession of a section 1 dangerous dog. The court will determine if the dog can be placed on the exemption list with a contingent destruction order where they will need to register the dog with DEFRA and adhere to the conditions set or be humanely destroyed.”