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‘None of this is Trevor’s fault’
Trevor the dog is back in city custody, after being spotted on the street without his muzzle.
Photo by Whitehorse Star
Trevor
Trevor the dog is back in city custody, after being spotted on the street without his muzzle.
On Friday afternoon, Dave Pruden, the city’s senior bylaw officer, saw the 1-1/2-year-old German shepherd-Rottweiler cross tied to a tree outside a business on Quartz Road in Whitehorse’s industrial area. The dog was not wearing a muzzle, as ordered by a Yukon Supreme Court justice.
Trevor is a resident of the Humane Society Yukon’s Mae Bachur Shelter.
He was first brought to the shelter with a chain grown into his neck after being rescued from a neglectful owner by a bylaw officer. There, he was patched up and put up for adoption.
But the next person to take Trevor home soon returned him to the city pound with reports that he had bitten and lunged at a number of people.
The dog was deemed dangerous and scheduled to be put down.
His execution was halted by Whitehorse resident Kevin Sinclair, who brought Trevor’s case to supreme court on the basis that Trevor is the humane society’s property and the city had no legal right to kill him. Soon after, the human society took over the case.
Ultimately, the dog has been allowed to live, but he does so under very strict court conditions, which the volunteers who walk him and help with his training all know about.
According to bylaw manager John Taylor, the volunteer who was walking Trevor told Pruden he had the muzzle, but couldn’t get it on.
Pruden muzzled the dog and told the walker to take Trevor back to the shelter.
It was later learned that someone had stopped to admire the dog, and the walker had removed the muzzle “to show Trevor off,” humane society spokeswoman Rachel Westfall explained today, and was then unable to get the mask back on.
Later Friday, Pruden and Taylor arrived at the shelter and seized the dog.
“Considering that Trevor has been deemed a danger to the public and in light of all the restrictions that are supposed to be followed in the animal’s care, we had no choice but to act,” Taylor said today.
“Everyone (at the shelter) is understandably really upset,” Westfall said today. “... It was a poor judgment call by his handler, and he clearly hadn’t thought it would impact negatively on Trevor, but it did.
“The worst part is, none of this is Trevor’s fault; he’s like a ping-pong ball in all this.”
The volunteer who was out with Trevor on Friday won’t be allowed to walk him again, she added.
Westfall said the city didn’t need to take such drastic action and that taking Trevor away from his home at the shelter disturbed his normal training routine and may have set back his rehabilitation.
She also said the city had no legal right under any municipal bylaws to take the dog and that the judge who has overseen Trevor’s case made no provisions for seizing the dog.
Taylor said today the city has no desire to keep the dog, nor have him put down, but could not just stand by and watch a judge’s decision being ignored.
“An order is an order, and you can’t breach the order,” Taylor said. “We can’t brush these things under the table and say they didn’t happen.”
The two sides are scheduled to meet in court again this afternoon, at which time Taylor said he expects the dog will be returned to the shelter with even more stringent conditions.
The shelter is currently looking for a new home for the dog.
Although Trevor has become the cause célèbre of animal lovers in Whitehorse and beyond, finding him an appropriate home has become a complicated matter since the matter was taken to court.
Negotiations between the city and the shelter have resulted in an extensive training and care plan for the dog.
Trevor can’t live with children or other dogs. He must be kept in a yard which does not abut a trail or sidewalk.
He must be kept muzzled and on a leash whenever he is outside his own yard and for the first month of life in his new home, he cannot be allowed to see out the doors or windows when he is inside.
Stipulations added by the city are that whoever adopts Trevor must have insurance in case he bites someone, and he or she must live within city limits.
To date, the Trevor the dog case has cost Whitehorse more that $25,000 in legal fees, a city spokesman said today.
Thomas Brewer
Nov 23, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Sigh… shoot the dog, save our tax dollars to fund the Canada Games Centre instead.
This never should have gone this far.