On the run, dog held on death row for last 10 months
Rottweiler that savaged a tourist escapes on a walk
HE has not been seen for five days after running away while on a walk in the woods – but the hunt for Kai is no normal missing dog search.
The three-year-old Rottweiler had been on the animal equivalent of death row for almost a year when he escaped last week.
Deemed ‘a danger to the public’ by the courts, the dog, which violently attacked a Canadian tourist last summer, has been at large since noon on Thursday.
Police have issued an appeal for help tracking him down, but warned people not to approach the dog, which they say is likely to be hungry and distressed. Kai had been kept at Langdyke Boarding Kennels, near Leven in Fife, while his owner attempted to overturn a destruction order.
But on Thursday, the dog ran off while being walked in woodland.
On Friday. police warned: ‘Although Kai does not belong to a banned breed he is unlikely to have eaten in over 24 hours and may be distressed. We advise you do not approach if you see him but instead notify police immediately on 101.’
Kai attacked tourist Charles Andrews in Montrose, Angus, in June last year, repeatedly biting him on the arms and leg. At a trial at Forfar Sheriff Court, witnesses described how the dog had jumped on Mr Andrews, putting his large paws on the man’s chest.
James Ryan, 63, who was convicted of being in charge of the dog when the attack happened, said Kai was being protective of a child who was with him. I was walking the dog with the child at the side of the road,’ he told the trial. ‘The couple were coming towards us and I tried to tell them, “Don’t touch the dog because it will bite you,” because it was protective of the bairn. By that time it had bit him.’
At the conclusion of the case in
‘None of this should have happened’
November, Sheriff Gregor Murray ordered the dog to be destroyed.
Kai belongs to Ryan’s niece Wendy Ross, 35, who insisted he was a ‘wonderful loving dog’ and told the court: ‘In the right hands he’s fine, but he’s my dog and he only listens to me because I’m his owner.’
Miss Ross continued to fight for her pet, but in January the Sheriff Appeal Court in Edinburgh agreed with the original ruling.
Sheriff Principal Mhairi Stephen QC said: ‘On the day of the offence, Kai presented a danger to the public. We fail to see to how the sheriff erred in law. In our view, the appeal falls to be refused.’
At her home in Montrose last night, Miss Ross said she had no idea her dog had run away, adding: ‘This is the first I’ve heard of this. It is a double shock. I don’t know what to think. I thought Kai was probably already put down.
‘The police were here about a month ago and asked me if I wanted Kai’s ashes after he was destroyed. I just thought it must have happened by now. It’s hard to believe. I just want to go and try and find him myself.
‘He was such a great dog. He was taken out that day by my uncle without my permission. Any dog can be dangerous in the wrong hands and sadly he was in the wrong hands that day.
‘None of this should ever have happened.’
Miss Ross said she bought Kai as a puppy for £350 and her daughters Amy, nine, and Jessica, five, were very close to him.
She added: ‘He was part of our small family and helped us and made us feel safe. I haven’t the heart to tell the girls the truth.
‘I had sort of accepted I wouldn’t see him again – but now this.’
Langdyke Boarding Kennels owner Sylvia Pass said she did not think Kai should be destroyed.
‘He is more likely to lie on his back and want his belly rubbed than attack someone,’ she said in a recent interview.
‘If he had been a lab or a collie, I think the decision would have been different.’