Winnipeg man attacked by dog wants Humane Society to be more careful about adoptions
Man bitten by adopted German shepherd says Humane Society needs to do better job of matching dogs and owners
A Winnipeg man who was attacked by a neighbour's dog wants to know why the Humane Society would allow an animal with aggression issues to be adopted to a novice dog owner.
Mitch Funk said he was walking his terrier, Annie, through Wolseley last Wednesday evening when he noticed a dog coming straight for his.
"The dog came like a predator — a savannah predator, with his ears down, and came in low to try and kill my little dog. So I grabbed the harness, thank God, and brought it up. And coming up, [the attacking dog] mangled my arm," said Funk.
He received about 20 stitches for the bite on his forearm. A week later, Funk said it's still painful.
"Feels like being crushed with burning razor blades," said Funk. "My dog was fine. That's my main concern. My dog is my child. I would do exactly the same thing again."
Funk said the dog that attacked him was a German shepherd cross that had recently been adopted by a neighbour, who didn't appear to be in control of the animal whenever Funk saw them on the street.
"Anytime it saw a dog it was like … not just anxious. It was — it had a homicidal look. There's menace and there's bluster with dogs. I'm no expert but a lot of people can recognize that. Even the other small dogs were, like, mewling every time they saw this dog," said Funk.
The dog is now in the care of Winnipeg's animal services, who are investigating the incident.
Still, Funk wants to know how the Winnipeg Humane Society allowed it to be adopted out in the first place.
"Sometimes you have to assess these dogs and go, 'Oh, this one's feral, it'll never fit in.' Anyhow, they either knew and didn't care or they didn't know and that's bad too," said Funk.
'We do our very best': Humane Society
Val Poulton, director of behaviour and intake at the Winnipeg Humane Society, said the dog, named Abel, had been in the shelter for less than a month before being adopted out about a week ago.
"For what information that we had about Abel it sounded like it was a good fit. But somehow things went terribly wrong, I'm afraid, for somebody," said Poulton.
She said while the dog was in the Humane Society's care he was very friendly toward people, but wasn't comfortable around dogs.
"He was just a lovely dog when he was here," said Poulton. "Volunteers had him out three times a day for walks. He interacted with staff, with customers. Never, never a problem toward people."
"Having been in the home for a very short period of time, the dog was very likely stressed and in a new situation again. We saw when he first came here he was a little bit nervous, so one would assume when going to a new environment would be the same. So that could have contributed for sure."
Poulton said dogs who show aggression toward people would not be placed for adoption until behavioural staff have worked with them to address their issues.
"A dog's behaviour is being assessed from the moment it walks into this door until the moment it walks out with a person. Interactions are documented in our notes about the dog," said Poulton.
"We do our very best to place very good dogs in very good homes. We take our job very seriously. We love animals, we care about people in the community as well, and we know that people that adopt our animals need us there for support," Poulton said.
"We offer behaviour training classes, we offer a free behaviour Yelp Line, we're always there to support people who have adopted our animals or people that have gotten pets somewhere else. We do our very best to place the best dogs in the best homes."
Funk wants the Humane Society to do better at pairing dogs with owners. He's glad Abel is in the care of animal services and hopes the dog won't be returned to the neighbourhood.
"I'm not so worried about what happened to me. I'm worried about what could have happened, or what could happen."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
