Police drop charges against dog owner responsible for dog-on-dog fatality

The owner with her three dogs in happier times

Police yesterday (10/9) said that they did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute a dog owner who allowed a poodle she was walking to attack a papillon toy spaniel, which resulted in its death.

On 13 April this year a 64-year-old woman was walking her three dogs, two poodles, and a toy spaniel, near the Lions Nature Education Centre in Sai Kung. Before the incident in question, one of her poodles had attacked and bitten other dogs in the vicinity. She did not stop their owners from taking pictures of the attacks which is how the incident ended up on the Internet. 

In the videos the black poodle suddenly attacked the spaniel, biting it on its neck and head, and kept biting, pressing the squirrel dog to the ground. The dog owner, seeing her two dogs fighting each other, pulled the leash to try to stop them, but the spaniel was suspended in the air for about 18 seconds, until the poodle finally let go. The spaniel had lost his eyes, vomited blood, and dying, fell to the ground.

Afterwards, the owner shifted all the responsibility to the black poodle, took the poodle to the veterinary clinic for euthanasia, and posted it on Facebook.

According to a source quoted by the “Hong Kong Zoological News”, the dead spaniel was dissected by two forensic doctors from the AFCD. It was confirmed that the cause of its death was not the hanging by the dog owner, but a heart attack. Traces of another dog’s bites were found.

The police stated that they did not have enough evidence to initiate a prosecution after seeking legal advice, and finally decided not to prosecute the dog owner involved. The owner said that the autopsy report showed that the cause of the dog’s death had nothing to do with her behaviour that day.

Chinese language media have shown a number of photographs of the incident along with links to the videos. BUZZ has decided not to publish these as they are too disturbing.

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