A dog attack Tuesday, August 28, around 11 a.m. in the Morrisburg waterfront park left a four-year-old Yorkshire Terrier dead, and his owner injured.
Shirley Gillmor, of Morrisburg, was walking her nine pound dog Bruiser along the walking path just past the Docksyde restaurant, when the attack occurred.
Her dog was leashed, the German Shepherd that attacked them was not.
Gillmor. whose hand was bitten during the attack, says, “The marks this has left on the inside, are much worse than the marks on my hands.”
Though grieving the loss of her canine companion, she was compelled to share her story with The Leader and the community to make people aware of what happened, in hopes that such a tragedy will never happen again.
She is especially worried because this attack happened in such a busy place, where people often walk their dogs and where families regularly spend time with their children.
Last Tuesday morning, at about 11 a.m., Gillmor took Bruiser for a walk, as usual. As they walked past the Docksyde, Gillmor notice a dark blue van parked. An unleashed dog was outside the van. She describes that dog as a 20-30 pound poodle type dog, that did not appear to be any threat to her or her dog, although it was unleashed.
She was correct in her assumption, that dog posed no threat. But, what she couldn’t see was a large German Shepherd inside the van, parked with its sliding door wide open. The dog owner was sitting in the van.
When Gillmor and Bruiser got within about 20 feet of the van the Shepherd leapt out of the van growling.
“He headed directly for my dog,” said Gillmor. “It all happened so fast, I had no time to pick my dog up.”
“My dog is leashed all the time. I was trying to hold my dog in my right hand while I put my left hand out to try and stop the dog, but in one or two seconds the Shepherd was there.”
“I was screaming at the (dog’s) owner to get his dog,” said Gillmor. “He yelled, but he didn’t make any move as I was struggling.”
In all the commotion Gillmor’s dog slipped out of his collar. That’s when the attacking Shepherd sank his teeth into the small dog and shook him. “My dog is screeching in pain and I get bit, that’s when the owner finally gets his dog,” she recounts.
“My dog is screaming in pain, my hands are dripping with blood and the dog owner gets his two dogs back in the van and starts driving away,” says Gillmor. “I yelled at him to help me and he cursed at me.”
Luckily, a quick-thinking eye-witness got the van’s plate number and another helped Gillmor by taking her and her badly injured dog to the Morrisburg Animal Hospital.
“They were wonderful at the vet’s,” said Gillmor. “They dropped everything to work on my Yorkie.”
However, though the dog was still alive, the dog’s internal injuries were so severe that Gillmor says, “I had to make the terrible decision to have him put down.”
Gillmor reported the attack to police, and following their investigation, the owner of the Shepherd, 57-year-old George Parent of Ottawa has been charged with dog owner failing to prevent it from biting or attacking a person or domestic animal. OPP media relations officer Pete Robertson reported Tuesday that the charge has been laid and that a court date has been set.
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