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LETTER: Pit bull attacked woman and dog

We are writing you at this time to make you even more aware of the dog situation in our city.

Dear Editor:

We are writing you at this time to make you even more aware of the dog situation in our city.

On Monday, Oct. 3, 2016, we were sitting at one of the tables at Memorial Park with our bassett hound when a truck pulled up and out came a lady and her pit bull.

She walked towards the playground when she lost control of her dog. The dog charged our bassett and proceeded to maul him.

My wife tried separating them with the assistance of myself. We eventually got them apart and after many requests, she took her dog back to the truck. Our dog was injured terribly as was my wife.

We had to go to emergency and our daughter took our dog to Summerland Animal Clinic.

My wife had several cuts and our dog had a broken front leg and many stitches to his hind quarters. So far, we have spent over $1,000 on our dog since the attack.

Two minutes prior to this, the Montessori School had walked by on their way to the pool. It is so fortunate that they were no where near! What if this dog went after one of the children? Do you have any idea what the back lash would be?

In Calgary they have reduced the dog attacks by implementing a Responsible Pet Owner model. Here is the link: http://vancouversun.com/storyline/how-calgary-reduced-dog-attacks-without-banning-pit-bulls

In my opinion, in Summerland, there are two types of dogs: ones that are owned by caring, capable families as a family pet and the others are used as guard dogs or who have been treated poorly and/or trained to be vicious by their owners.

As long as we allow the second group of dogs to frequent public areas, we are putting many animals and people at risk.

We request that you seriously read the article and discuss in detail how you can address this problem and do what you feel is necessary to increase the safety of Summerland.

We know the lady who works for animal control and we found her extremely competent and helpful. You may want to involve her in your discussions.

Robert J. Heard

Summerland