The B.C. Court of Appeal says Punky the dog is dangerous and should be put down.
Court documents show the four-year-old Australian cattle dog earned the designation after seriously injuring a woman in an unprovoked attack in Vancouver’s Locarno Park in August 2017.
The woman had been sitting in the park when Punky charged her and sank his teeth into her legs. She was taken to hospital by ambulance to be treated for multiple puncture wounds and other injuries.
A few weeks later, Punky lunged at an animal control officer with the City of Vancouver who had come to owner Susan Santics’ house to investigate the incident.
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The officer applied to have Punky destroyed, and Santics was charged with allowing her dog to bite a person and having him off-leash in a public place.
In 2018, a Provincial Court judge designated Punky ‘dangerous’ as defined in the Vancouver Charter and ordered he be euthanized.
Santics appealed that decision, but it was upheld by both the B.C. Supreme Court and the B.C. Court of Appeal.
In the latest appeal, Santics claimed the Provincial Court didn’t have jurisdiction to uphold the Vancouver Charter.
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Court documents show a list of six documented incidents prior to the attack at Locarno Park where Punky had bitten people or displayed aggressive behaviour. The provincial court judge described Santics as “willfully blind” to the danger posed by her dog, whom she allowed to “roam freely without a muzzle in a public park.”
WATCH: (June 21, 2019) Richmond neighbourhood on edge after dog attack
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