The vicious mauling of a woman by two pitbulls near Sylvan Lake was the worst dog attack a 30-year veteran bylaw enforcement officer ever saw, a court heard on Thursday.
Jim DeBoon told Red Deer provincial court that he has captured 12,000 dogs and handled a total of 35,000 dogs in his time as an officer but the attack on Oct. 29, in a field just west of Sylvan Lake, was the worst attack he had ever seen.
Lustig had no standing in the hearing and only listened to the testimony of DeBoon and two RCMP officers who responded to the attack that occurred around 4:45 p.m.
However, Judge Thomas Schollie granted Lustig 10 days to mount an opposition on behalf of the dogs, named Jack and Tyra, to keep them from being destroyed in 10 days.
Pictures displayed showed the woman’s arm bloody, with a vein protruding.
She was also bitten on both feet and the back of one leg by the dogs she had been walking for Lustig, who was away at the time.
The woman required plastic surgery to repair the wounds.
RCMP Const. Eric Borrowman testified he responded to a 911 call from the victim and found the dogs biting her.
When the animals saw his car, they charged him.
Borrowman said he couldn’t shoot the dogs because the victim was in his line of sight.
He said he pepper-sprayed both animals, but they kept lunging and challenging him.
More officers arrived and they too pepper-sprayed the animals until they ran off a distance.
Borrowman said the woman had her blouse ripped partially off and had a bloody arm and blood everywhere on her.
Her shoes had been ripped off and shredded.
Const. Scott Williamson told Crown prosecutor Maurice Collard that he drew his handgun for fear of being attacked and possibly killed by the dogs.
By the time DeBoon arrived, the victim had most of her clothes ripped off.
She was eventually hustled into a police cruiser while officers again pepper-sprayed the dogs until they were captured.
Williamson said the male dog, Jack, also bit a man in Sylvan Lake around noon the same day when that victim went to visit the house where the dogs lived.
The man suffered bites to his shoulder and arm and had to go to hospital for a tetanus shot.
DeBoon said the dogs were kept in a separate cage at his Red Deer County kennels.
However, last weekend the male dog bit the tail off another large dog that was being boarded there for the weekend in a separate dog run area. He said the pitbull managed to pull the other dog’s tail off under the bottom of a steel fence, which had a two-cm opening.
Collard said he requested an order of destruction because the dogs are dangerous and have caused injuries to a people.
Collard said he had no evidence to present if the breed of dog was dangerous but at least one other province has banned them.
“They should have been shot at the scene but the officer’s line of sight” had the woman in it.
Schollie agreed that the dogs are dangerous but that the owner should have a chance to reply.
jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com