Loose dog kills pup in owner’s arms
An Ottawa man has been fined and ordered to muzzle his dog after an attack that killed a 14-week-old puppy in a Rideau River park two weeks ago.
But that punishment isn’t enough for Tugce Ozbakkaloglu, who was trying to protect her puppy, Booboo, in her arms when she was knocked to the ground by the unleashed mastiff that charged her in Riverain Park on May 17.
Ozbakkaloglu and a friend were with Booboo in the park near Donald Street and North River Road when she saw two dogs, a brown one and a white one, racing toward her. She scooped Booboo, a Maltese-Yorkie cross known as a morkie, and stood up, thinking that it would end the aggression. But the white dog kept coming, leaping up and knocking Ozbakkaloglu over.
“It happened so fast. It was terrifying,” she said. “We were rolling on the ground, the three of us: me, my puppy, and this big white dog. We were wrestling. I felt like a mother. I felt like it was my baby. But this dog was so strong that I was under him and I couldn’t move. He didn’t bite me because he had his teeth in my puppy’s neck. But I felt like I was going to be next.”
Ozbakkaloglu’s friend was kicking at the white dog to get it off when the dogs’ owner finally arrived and corralled them.
“He had no sympathy. No reflexes. If my dog had scratched another dog I’d have been, ‘Oh I’m so sorry. Let’s go take care of it.’ He had no reaction at all. He was just, ‘Oh I didn’t know that was going to happen.’ He told me to go get another dog.”
“This guy was 100-per-cent sure what this dog was capable of. And it’s not a case where the leash got out of his hands. He didn’t even have a leash.”
Ozbakkaloglu’s friend called 911 and police arrived quickly, she said.
Police called Ottawa bylaw officers, but they had to call the NCC because the attack occurred on NCC land.
By this time, Ozbakkaloglu was on her way to an emergency veterinary clinic with another woman who had stopped to help.
“(Booboo) was still breathing in the car. He stopped breathing just when we got to the clinic.”
Booboo was X-rayed and found to have died from a broken neck. Ozbakkaloglu was bruised, scratched and bleeding from the attack. She had to get a tetanus shot and endure an agonizing wait to see whether the attacking dog had rabies because the owner had no veterinary records for it. Her doctor said she might suffer post-traumatic stress disorder from her ordeal.
Ozbakkaloglu was later told the dog that attacked her was a Dogo Argentino, a dog in the mastiff family that was bred to hunt puma and wild boar and can weigh more than 50 kilograms.
No one from the city was available to comment on Sunday, but a statement confirmed that the dog owner had been charged with “failing to ensure the dog does not bite or attack a person or domestic animal.” The city’s bylaw department also ordered that the dog be muzzled and leashed when off its property.
But Ozbakkaloglu said she’s not satisfied with the response from the city and the NCC. With the dogs still out there, she’s afraid to get a new puppy, or to go back to the park. bcrawford@postmedia.com