Doggy on death row for almost two years loses final provincial appeal
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2019 16:39:40 +0000
Punky, a pumpkin-snack-loving four-year-old herder dog who has been on death row for just shy of two years, had one of his last chances at freedom quashed on Friday when the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed his case.
The only option left, and it’s a long shot, is the Supreme Court of Canada, a costly and time-consuming endeavour.
And time is something Punky may not have.
“We have a limited time in which to decide (on appeal to the Supreme Court),” Victoria Shroff, one of the three lawyers representing Punky’s owner Susan Santics, said on Friday. “Punky may not be spared while we make up our minds.”
In fact, the Crown Prosecutor could decide that Punky, an Australian cattle dog, could be euthanized as early as Monday.
“I’ve sent a note to the Crown asking for time to consider our options,” Shroff said.
Punky was sentenced to death in July, 2018, after he attacked a woman sitting on the grass and texting at Locarno Beach in Vancouver in August 2017.
That he attacked Alyssa Prattas, biting her leg and hand, wasn’t disputed by Santics. What her lawyers appealed after B.C. Provincial Court ruled Punky to be a dangerous dog and therefore needed to be put down, is what animal lawyer and University of B.C. adjunct law professor Shroff said is a very low bar set by the Vancouver Charter, and the Community Charter that is followed throughout B.C., in determining whether a “dangerous dog” should be killed.
Punky has been held in a cage by Vancouver Animal Services since September, 2017.
The Court of Appeal on Friday ruled — and the Supreme Court of B.C. before had agreed — that the Provincial Court had no jurisdiction to make a conditional order or any order short of destruction once Punky had been deemed dangerous.
Ontario, Saskatchewan and PEI courts are allowed to use their discretion in such cases, allowing to see whether training can rehabilitate such a dog for example, and that’s what Shroff would like to see happen in B.C. law.
“I’d definitely like to see that put into legislation here so a court can make that decision rather than have the decision forced upon it by statute,” she said. “Right now it’s a yes or no question, there needs to be some grey area.”
As it is, short of getting leave to be heard by the Supreme Court of Canada there isn’t anything else that can be done to save Punky.
“This will be so devastating (for Punky’s owner, Susan Santics),” Shroff said. “We had 48 hours warning the decision was coming down, it hit like a ton of bricks.
“Punky is all the family Susan has in the world.”