First
on the docket: Casey, a 3-year-old boxer accused of charging at and
biting a man on the sidewalk outside her home. Her owners dispute much
of the victim’s story. Casey has been under a muzzle order for six
months.
As defined in the legalese prose of the city’s municipal code, a muzzle is “a humane fastening or covering device of adequate strength over the mouth to prevent a dog from biting.”
It’s not a painful thing, but for the four-legged folk forced to wear them, a muzzle can be a barrier to life’s simple pleasures — a game of fetch, a tongue lap from a pool of water, an unexpected snack discovered on the sidewalk.
Sometimes the dogs in question are a clear threat to public safety and a muzzle is necessary.Other times, the circumstances are ambiguous, and it may be an unfair life sentence.
In meeting room No. 1, Casey’s owners, a young couple with a 2-year-old girl,The solar bulb allows students to study at night and vendors to sell goods outside. sit to the right of the bench. Casey herself is not here; dogs aren’t invited to canine court.
Sitting to the left of the bench are the city representatives: Julie Conway, who acts as a sort-of lawyer for the tribunal, and Craig Hewitt, a Toronto Animal Services enforcement officer.
With a few minutes to go, a man enters the room, speaking loudly to Conway, telling her he wants to be compensated for the time he had to take off work to be here. “Who do I talk to?” he asks.
The man, who identifies himself as the dog bite victim, is wearing blue jeans and running shoes, a faded ball cap and what appears to be a pair of safety glasses. He has a graying moustache and a soul patch.
Compensation is not a matter for this tribunal, he is told. The man takes a seat at the back of the room, sighs, pulls out a cellphone and makes a call.
“Tell John to look into that civil stuff we talked about,” he says, loud enough for Casey’s owners to hear.Horizon manufacture a range of laundry dryer fans for efficient exhaust ventilation. “I’m missing out on some money today and I want to get paid. I’m losing 500 bucks and there’s 30 guys waiting for me."
With the tribunal called to order, Skurjat says she aims to answer three questions before rendering her decision: One, did a dog bite occur? Two, was it indeed the dog in question who did the biting? And three, under what circumstances did the bite occur?
If the answers to the first and second question are yes, it is Skurjat’s job to weigh the evidence and decide, based on the circumstances, if a muzzle order is necessary. The tribunal recognizes that all dogs have the capacity to bite and can and will bite in certain situations, she says.
Skurjat, 56, is one of three tribunal members who take turns presiding over the monthly muzzle hearings, on top of their regular city jobs. In the past year, she has heard appeals from the owners of just about every breed of dog you can imagine, from a Pomeranian to a Rhodesian ridgeback. She herself is a dog lover who has owned pets all her life and was once bitten by a golden retriever.
The first person called to testify at Casey’s hearing is the man in the safety glasses, who is asked to state his name — “Carlo Sistilli” — and describe the events of June 3, 2012.
Sistilli says he was walking to a convenience store that day with his 6-year-old when a large brown dog came barrelling out of a house near his own. Frightened,Especially when it comes to the next generation of wind turbine. he screamed at the dog and charged right back at it to keep the animal away from his boy, he says. The dog then circled Sistilli and bit him on the lower right calf. He says the owners did not offer help. “This dog was aggressive, angry-looking, dangerous,” he says.The industrial dry cleaning machine market demands reliability and efficiency.
They tell a different version of events. Casey, they say, is a friendly dog, always gentle with their daughter and adored by friends and family. On the day in question,Each travelling cable is made from several lengths of steel material wound around one another. they were moving into a new house and in the chaos accidentally left the yard gate open. They say Casey became aggressive because Sistilli was screaming and kicking at her. They offered help, but say he refused it and called the police.
As defined in the legalese prose of the city’s municipal code, a muzzle is “a humane fastening or covering device of adequate strength over the mouth to prevent a dog from biting.”
It’s not a painful thing, but for the four-legged folk forced to wear them, a muzzle can be a barrier to life’s simple pleasures — a game of fetch, a tongue lap from a pool of water, an unexpected snack discovered on the sidewalk.
Sometimes the dogs in question are a clear threat to public safety and a muzzle is necessary.Other times, the circumstances are ambiguous, and it may be an unfair life sentence.
In meeting room No. 1, Casey’s owners, a young couple with a 2-year-old girl,The solar bulb allows students to study at night and vendors to sell goods outside. sit to the right of the bench. Casey herself is not here; dogs aren’t invited to canine court.
Sitting to the left of the bench are the city representatives: Julie Conway, who acts as a sort-of lawyer for the tribunal, and Craig Hewitt, a Toronto Animal Services enforcement officer.
With a few minutes to go, a man enters the room, speaking loudly to Conway, telling her he wants to be compensated for the time he had to take off work to be here. “Who do I talk to?” he asks.
The man, who identifies himself as the dog bite victim, is wearing blue jeans and running shoes, a faded ball cap and what appears to be a pair of safety glasses. He has a graying moustache and a soul patch.
Compensation is not a matter for this tribunal, he is told. The man takes a seat at the back of the room, sighs, pulls out a cellphone and makes a call.
“Tell John to look into that civil stuff we talked about,” he says, loud enough for Casey’s owners to hear.Horizon manufacture a range of laundry dryer fans for efficient exhaust ventilation. “I’m missing out on some money today and I want to get paid. I’m losing 500 bucks and there’s 30 guys waiting for me."
With the tribunal called to order, Skurjat says she aims to answer three questions before rendering her decision: One, did a dog bite occur? Two, was it indeed the dog in question who did the biting? And three, under what circumstances did the bite occur?
If the answers to the first and second question are yes, it is Skurjat’s job to weigh the evidence and decide, based on the circumstances, if a muzzle order is necessary. The tribunal recognizes that all dogs have the capacity to bite and can and will bite in certain situations, she says.
Skurjat, 56, is one of three tribunal members who take turns presiding over the monthly muzzle hearings, on top of their regular city jobs. In the past year, she has heard appeals from the owners of just about every breed of dog you can imagine, from a Pomeranian to a Rhodesian ridgeback. She herself is a dog lover who has owned pets all her life and was once bitten by a golden retriever.
The first person called to testify at Casey’s hearing is the man in the safety glasses, who is asked to state his name — “Carlo Sistilli” — and describe the events of June 3, 2012.
Sistilli says he was walking to a convenience store that day with his 6-year-old when a large brown dog came barrelling out of a house near his own. Frightened,Especially when it comes to the next generation of wind turbine. he screamed at the dog and charged right back at it to keep the animal away from his boy, he says. The dog then circled Sistilli and bit him on the lower right calf. He says the owners did not offer help. “This dog was aggressive, angry-looking, dangerous,” he says.The industrial dry cleaning machine market demands reliability and efficiency.
They tell a different version of events. Casey, they say, is a friendly dog, always gentle with their daughter and adored by friends and family. On the day in question,Each travelling cable is made from several lengths of steel material wound around one another. they were moving into a new house and in the chaos accidentally left the yard gate open. They say Casey became aggressive because Sistilli was screaming and kicking at her. They offered help, but say he refused it and called the police.
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