Editor's note: the images and incident associated with this story may be disturbing to some
Normally, Thomas Joyce's Vernon neighbourhood on East Hill is quiet. A family-type neighbourhood, he suggests.
It's a great place 鈥� normally 鈥� for Joyce to take his 10-pound spaniel Molly for an evening walk, which he planned to do Thursday, June 13, around 7 p.m.
Joyce stepped out his front door where, he said, he was greeted by a woman, about 25-years-old he estimated, standing at the end of his driveway with a dog leash in her hands. Joyce said she asked him to pick up Molly. He clipped the spaniel, he said, onto a leash in his carport, then walked part-way down his driveway.
What happened next, said Joyce, "happened so fast, my life has been literally and figuratively flipped upside down."
"A large pit bull, about 100 pounds, running loose, charged past me and stopped," he said. "Before I could retreat to safety, it turned around and clamped its jaws onto my right foot, yanked me down where I bashed my elbows onto the concrete driveway and landed on my back. It then dragged me toward the street."
Joyce 鈥� self-described as a fit 170-pound man 鈥� was "struck down like a feather."
The pain, he said, was "immediate, excruciating, completely terrifying." By kicking the pit bull repeatedly with his left foot, and the pit bull owner tackling the dog, Joyce managed to get his right foot free. He said a family member of the pit bull owner drove by and "hauled the pit bull away in a car." Joyce's wife asked the pit bull owner for her name and to identify herself. She declined, said Joyce. So, too, he added, did "all of her family and/or friends throughout the whole ordeal."
Joyce's wife called the RCMP who investigated. The officer talked to the pit bull owner, who was three houses down from the Joyce's, but then told Joyce the incident is not a criminal matter and the RCMP would not get involved. He suggested the Joyces call Greater Vernon Dog Control, operated by the Regional District of North Okanagan.
The couple filed an online report and received a call from a dog control officer Friday morning. The RDNO officer explained the most that could be done was to "visit the residence and possibly give the pit bull owner a ticket," said Joyce. Not completely satisfied, he asked to speak to the officer's supervisor, Jamie McLaughlin, with RDNO.
McLaughlin, said Joyce, was "very sympathetic to our situation," and "promised to do what he could."
Stacey Raftus, RDNO communications officer, said dog control is working with the victim and the dog owner, and confirmed an investigation into the incident has been opened.
The owner, she said, will be issued a ticket. As it was the dog's first offence, it will not be put down as per the RDNO bylaw.
"The bite has been documented and the dog entered into our data system," she said. "So we can keep track of it and if there's any re-occurrence (of biting)."
The Joyces phoned the BC SPCA, only to be informed that although the SPCA is contracted in certain B.C. cities to deal with dangerous dogs, "they have no jurisdiction in Vernon."
"That is indeed correct," said Carrie Bownick, BC SPCA manager of municipal animal contracts. "The BC SPCA is able to enforce the bylaw in areas where we have a contracted agreement with the municipality, for example in Castlegar or Dawson Creek. Usually each municipality/regional district will have regulations or bylaws that specify what happens if a dog attack occurs 鈥� whether that's tickets, the dog is deemed aggressive/vicious/etc.
"Many municipalities enforce these bylaws themselves, but some choose to contract that out to a third party such as BC SPCA, Commissionaires, etc."
Joyce went to Vernon Jubilee Hospital Thursday evening. He said he was given a tetanus shot and medicine for the pain, along with a first round of antibiotics. The doctor flushed the gashes in his foot with saline, and instructed Joyce to flush it regularly, stay off the foot, and keep it elevated. No stitches were given to close the wound as Joyce said "it could lock in a serious infection."
He has been using crutches to move around at home and has been "bleeding everywhere." He is also now off work.
Joyce said they have not been able to find out if the pit bull had its rabies and/or other vaccinations.
The incident, said Joyce, has left him with nightmares that can strike him at any time.
"What if this happened earlier in the day when the children from the elementary school nearby walked past our home?" said Joyce. "What if it was one of the many children or pets on our street that the pit bull chose to indiscriminately bite? They would have had their neck snapped in an instant and be dead. I could have been easily mortally wounded."
As of Monday, June 17, Joyce still doesn't know who owns the pit bull. He never received an apology, he said. He had never met the young woman nor seen the dog before that night. He said he was told the woman was moving into the house three doors down from his the day of the attack, but now the woman and the family that lived there, he heard, had moved out the next day.
"I don鈥檛 know where they moved to and I鈥檓 afraid for all the children, adults and pets where they live now," said Joyce.
The Morning Star has reached out to RDNO for more information.
