Achi news desk-
Almost two years to the day after 86-year-old Betty Ann Williams was mauled to death in a dog attack, the owner of the pool bills appeared in court trying to keep them from being taken down.
One of Denis Bagaric’s three American terriers from Staffordshire has already been destroyed. His lawyer argued on Tuesday that the other two should be spared because there is no proof that they are connected.
“It is a very tragic file, (but) we are not a court of emotions. We are a court of law,” Rabie Ahmed told Justice Bruce Fraser at the civil hearing.
Williams, also known as Rusty, was mauled in an alley on June 5, 2022, after the three dogs escaped from a fenced and gated backyard.
The court heard that the woman’s wounds were serious: multiple cuts and bruises to her head and neck. The vertebrae just below her skull broke, as did the bone below her chin. There were injuries to her jugular vein branches and carotid artery, bruises on her legs and cuts on her arms.
Neighbor Nicola Opsal told the court she had known Williams for 25 years. Tears fell back as she spoke of running into the lane that day when she heard cries for help.
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“I saw some dogs and a person. They were going to the person. The dogs were around the body but two jumped towards me and they were fighting each other,” he said.
Opsal said it was only until she and her husband got close enough to the body that she realized it was Williams. He said Bagaric dragged two of the dogs into his backyard.
Her husband and Bagaric then comforted Williams while Opsal called 911.
Opsal admitted that he did not see any of the dogs bite Williams.
“I didn’t see them physically attack the person because I wasn’t that close,” Opsal said. “But they were there and there were injuries.”
The city’s lawyer, Ed Ring, said that there was enough evidence that the other two dogs were a danger and that they were likely to take part in the attack to try to order the destruction of the dogs.
Fraser will deliver judgment on June 13.
Bagaric has already been fined $18,000 and banned from owning pets for 15 years. He pleaded guilty to two city bylaw charges: animal attacking a person causing serious injury and animals running at large.
The judge in that case said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the three dogs were involved in the attack.
The case triggered a separate independent review because it took 30 minutes for paramedics to respond to Williams’ treatment.
The Alberta Health Quality Council concluded that the initial emergency call was incorrectly coded to indicate that the attack was not life-threatening, resulting in the response time being twice as long as it should have been.
& copy 2024 The Canadian Press