A Winnipeg pet owner is grieving and advocates are calling for the city to better protect small dogs at its off-leash parks after a pup weighing 1 1/2 kilograms died after being mauled at Bonnycastle Park this month.
Elena Perron and Poppy, her 20-month-old yorkipoo, were regulars at the off-leash portion of the downtown park, which runs along Assiniboine Avenue at Garry Street.
Just before 6 p.m. on May 8, Perron arrived at the park with the dog, who quickly disappeared in the area, crowded with animals and their owners. Not long after, she heard a high-pitched squeal and saw a large husky-looking dog holding Poppy in its jaws “like a little rag doll.”
Poppy, a yorkiepoo puppy, died after being mauled by a big dog at Bonnycastle May 8.
“She was completely incapacitated by the big dog, not really able to defend herself,” Perron told the Free Press Tuesday.
Perron and another park visitor immediately rushed the dog to a veterinarian and were told she had suffered puncture wounds to the neck and abdomen, a hernia and internal bleeding.
The dog was not likely to survive surgery, Perron was told, and Poppy was put down at about 10 p.m.
“It’s like your heart being ripped out of your chest,” she said.
Perron got the husky owner’s contact information and reported the incident to 311. She was contacted by Animal Services a few days later and asked for the names of witnesses and any photos she could provide.
A city spokesperson confirmed the incident had been reported but declined a request for an interview with someone from Animal Services.
The Free Press reached an owner of the husky, who declined to give her name, but said she and her partner have a court date scheduled and that the dog had never acted aggressively before at an off-leash park.
She said Animal Services told them they will have to prove their dog is not dangerous.
“The big dogs, they thought (Poppy) was a squirrel or something… and they chased it like they chase a ball that their owners throw,” she said. “And it happened that our dog was the first one to catch.”
Perron described Poppy as friendly and sweet and too small to play with other dogs in that setting.
“I’ve been told to not go to the dog park because my dog was tiny and she was a risk. That’s not fair,” she said. “She should be allowed and have a safe space to go, too. She has every right as any other dog to be at a dog park. She loved it.”
While there are off-leash parks with fenced-off areas for small dogs — Devonshire Dog Park in Sir Wilfred Laurier Park has separate sides for dogs under and over 14 kilograms, and Maple Grove Park has a puppy pen area — a local advocate for small dogs and their owners says those two facilities aren’t adequate.
Jordena Kraut has spent six years organizing a small-dog play group in Crescentwood. She said more than 500 dogs have socialized safely in that time, but renting out community centre outdoor rinks as off-leash spaces after the hockey and skating season is done has become increasingly difficult.
She wants to see the city require small-dog-designated spaces in all off-leash parks.
“It should be part of the mandate when we’re building (dog parks), and the simple fencing at (Devonshire) is an example of how easy it can be done,” she said.
“That’s why it’s so disappointing, when you have a four-acre park, that small dogs can’t even have (a small area). It’s really disappointing.”
Dean Weiss (left) with his dog, Tootie, who meets Dou Dou, who is with Yidan Zhu, while at the Bonnycastle Dog Park Tuesday.
A new bylaw requiring dog daycares to have separate play areas to separate large and small dogs was introduced in 2022. Kraut said she doesn’t understand why the bylaw wasn’t stretched further to include off-leash parks.
“It’s poor planning for the city… and then small groups just want to use the rink at the end of the street, they have to go through hoops and hoops and hoops of bureaucratic games,” she said.
Dogs and their owners at Bonnycastle Tuesday morning were enjoying the space peacefully.
At one point, Yidan Zhu’s dog Dou Dou and Tootie, who belongs to Dean Weiss crossed paths and one growled at the other, but both were quickly reined in by their owners.
Dou Dou isn’t always friendly around other dogs because of mistreatment before Zhu adopted him, she said, adding it’s her responsibility — every owner’s responsibility — to keep close watch on their animals to ensure growls don’t escalate into attacks.
“Some owners, when they come here, they just sit down and play (on their phone),” she said. “I think it’s an opportunity to communicate with our dogs. Maybe we should pay more attention to our dogs.”
Weiss said he knows Perron and frequently saw Poppy at the park.
He said that if there were more spaces for dogs to run off-leash downtown, it would reduce crowding at Bonnycastle and reduce incidents.
“It wouldn’t be that expensive, and it would certainly improve the quality of life for dogs and people, too,” he said.
Perron has launched a GoFundMe to help pay her vet bills and eventually get a new dog.
She hopes the husky’s owners will be instructed to keep their dog muzzled and leashed for the safety of others.
“I just want my dog back,” Perron said through tears. “I don’t care what the punishment is, in the end.”
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press.
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