Report calls for changes to how dog attacks are handled in wake of recent mauling

The City will be asked this week to consider changes to how it responds to dangerous dog attacks.

A report going before the Economic and Community Development Committee recommends several actions including publicly listing dangerous dog orders, standardizing dangerous dog signs, spending up to $500,000 on a public education campaign when it comes to compliance and enforcement about dangerous dogs, and requesting changes to provincial legislation to expedite dangerous dog hearings.

The report was ordered after Coun. Paula Fletcher wrote to the committee about a “life-changing mauling” of a resident in her ward who was attacked by an off-leash dog that was under a Dangerous Dog order.

The incident took place on the evening of July 30, 2023, on Mortimer Avenue when a woman and her friend were walking in the area when they were attacked by two dogs. She was treated in hospital for serious injuries that required stitches to her head, neck, back and leg. Residents who live in the neighbourhood told CityNews at the time they heard dogs barking and a woman screaming around the time of the attack.

Fletcher points out the owner was not required to surrender the dogs to Animal Services “which was terrifying for the surrounding neighbours” and that Animal Services did not take immediate steps to get a removal order. Instead, the dogs were left in the care of the owner along with two other dogs that were also under Dangerous Dog orders.

Fletcher adds that Toronto police charged the owner with criminal negligence causing bodily harm but that no public charges were ever laid by the City of Toronto.