Dog’s fate may land in the courts

Photo by Whitehorse Star

A group of concerned citizens has joined the Humane Society Yukon in its effort to save an abused dog from being put down.

Trevor was adopted from the Mae Bachur Animal Shelter in May by Matthew Allaby and his sister, Tamara Allaby. Many dogs were available for adoption, but the siblings chose Trevor because he was “bouncy” and “playful,” they said.

Trevor was great with people for the first few weeks, but soon became aggressive and bit three people unprovoked, said Matthew.

Following the attacks, Matthew discovered Trevor was placed in the care of the humane society-run shelter after abuse by a previous owner left him with a chain collar embedded in his neck.

Last week, when Matthew Allaby signed the German shepherd-Rottweiler cross over to the Whitehorse city bylaw department to be put down, he was told Trevor would be held for two weeks.

Gerry Steers, the humane society’s president, said today the board is working with the city to release the dog into the society’s care.

“We’ve done everything we can do,” she said.

She said the humane society’s board of directors discussed taking the matter to court, but its members decided they were unable to proceed with that action.

Steers said she was contacted by a nameless private group interested in fighting for Trevor’s release in court, at their own expense.

“We are happy that there is a private group ready to go to bat for the board,” said Steers.

Kevin Sinclair, one of the members of the group, said today he will meet with a lawyer early next week to file an injunction requesting Trevor’s release from the city pound until his story can be heard in court.

Sinclair said the group is looking to present Trevor’s unique history to a judge and they will argue that Tamara Allaby breached her contract by giving the dog toher brother, since it is her name on the application and the dog adoption contract.

“It basically states that if the owner does not want the dog anymore for any reason, the dog has to be returned to the humane society,” the shelter’s administrator, Tracy Smythe, said today about the contract.

Tamara Allaby said both her and her brother’s names are on the application and they informed the shelter staff at the time of adoption that Matthew would be the primary owner of Trevor. Because Matthew didn’t have a fixed address, they used Tamara’s address for the application.

Matthew said that he didn’t want to return Trevor to the shelter, as the contract states he is required to do, because he was concerned he would be adopted out again only to continue attacking people.

Smythe said if Trevor is returned to the shelter, they won’t immediately find him another home.

“Basically, our policy is if we do have a dog, we always have a dog trainer, we assess and we work with the dog. We don’t just adopt the dog out,” she said.

“We would find somebody who’s very experienced with dogs and who would be willing to work with him.”

Tamara and Matthew said they are upset with the shelter because they specifically told the staff they didn’t want a dog that had been previously abused. They said the shelter neglected to inform them Trevor had a history of trauma.

“I had no idea. Why wouldn’t they tell you so you could at least be prepared?” Tamara asked .

Smythe said when the shelter adopts out a dog, staff provide as much information as they can to the new caregiver.

Most of their animals come to the shelter from the city pound or as strays without a history, she said, but the shelter tells new pet owners if no information on an animal is available.

Although Trevor came to the shelter from the Whitehorse city pound, all Mae Bachur staff knew about Trevor’s past.

“Everybody who came in and showed interest in Trevor was told he was the dog who was brought in with the ingrown collar,” Smythe said, adding that Tamara also would have been told that information when she adopted the dog.

Smythe said when Trevor was in the care of the humane society and volunteer dog walkers, he showed no signs of aggression, and the shelter doesn’t know what would have caused him to attack people.

“An ingrown collar doesn’t cause a dog to be aggressive,” said Smythe.

‘We would like to know what happened for him to react like that.”

“I think it was his previous abuse that caused him to be violent,” said Matthew.

Matthew’s landlord, Paul Sheridan, said Matthew and his dog were “the best of buddies. He was a pal. He wasn’t mistreated anyway, not when Matt had him.”

Sheridan was one of the people bit by Trevor. Sheridan said he was getting out of his truck when Trevor ran up to him and bit his arm.

“I’d been down there before and the dog was fine with me,” he said. “It was just that one time he launched out of the cabin.”

Sheridan said he thinks Matthew acted responsibly by turning Trevor over to city bylaw officials.

“I feel kind of sorry for the dog, but you just can’t afford having that liability hanging around,” he said.