A New Westminster man is barking mad at being blocked from getting the identity of a man whose dogs attacked his pooch.
Mike Henderson said his wife had taken their mini schnauzer Karma to the off-leash park at Hume Park a few months ago when the incident occurred.
“Our dog was attacked, along with another dog,” he said. “The guy ran away. His dogs were pretty vicious.”
At the vet’s office, Karma needed to be sedated and received stitches to her face and back.
“I was lucky my dog was alive,” Henderson said. “My wife was screaming about my dog getting attacked. One bite almost could kill our little dog – we got lucky.”
Making the incident even more distressing was the fact that the man didn’t call his dogs and try to stop the attacks and didn’t apologize or offer to help in any way, even though it was obvious Karma was injured.
Henderson reported the incident to New Westminster Animal Control Services, which investigated the attack and, with Karma’s owner’s help, identified the man.
“I said, ‘Tell me who he is so I can take him to court and recover my losses,’” he said. “I want to sue him. I want him to stand in court and pay for his cowardice.”
The city, however, wouldn’t give Henderson the man’s name, even though his wife had identified him through a photo that staff had emailed her.
“I thought part of them finding out was me being able to take this guy to civil court,” Henderson said. “I am quite shocked that that is a no-go. They wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Sukh Maghera, the city’s coordinator of animal and parking services, said an animal control officer recalled patrolling Hume Park in the past and having a random conversation with a man about dogs. Hearing of the man’s description from Karma’s owners, she went through her records, searched his name on the Internet and found an image.
“We did try to serve the ticket but it was not served successfully,” he said of the man who doesn’t live in New Westminster. “We do try to exhaust our avenues. We can usually find people but in this case we haven’t been able to.”
Maghera said he has no reason to doubt the Henderson’s account of what happened in the park, otherwise the city would never have pursued charges. The city had been pursuing charges of dog causing serious injury, which carries a $250 fine.
“A minor injury is essentially anything that doesn’t puncture the skin,” he said. “Once it punctures the skin it is considered serious.”
Maghera said the man may have been issued a warning ticket for having his dog off-leash but had no previous offences in New Westminster.
Jan Gibson, the city’s acting director of legislative services, said Section 22 of the Freedom of Information/Protection of Privacy Act prevents the city from releasing the dog owner’s name, as that’s considered personal information to the person who owns the dog.
“If that person (Henderson) would go to court and have a subpoena or have the courts give a court order to get that information, then they could,” she said. “We can’t release that person’s information because it is private information to that person. They would have to go through the courts.”
If successful in getting money through small claims court, Henderson said he would donate the money to a guide dog charity that he supports.
“This is not a money thing. It’s the principle of the thing,” he said. “I want to take him to small claims court and make him pay for his cowardice.”
Maghera said he’s only heard of one other case where someone took a dog owner to small claims court to recoup costs for injuries to an animal.
