Death Row Dog's Case To Be Heard In High Court

[samoyedman]

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/victoria/legal-history-high-court-to-hear-melbourne-death-row-dog-case-20150213-13e6ry.html

The long-running legal battle to save Izzy the Staffordshire terrier from being put down will go before the High Court, most likely in April.

Izzy's owner, Tania Isbester, was on Friday granted leave to appeal to the High Court by justices Kenneth Hayne and Geoffrey Nettle after the Victorian Court of Appeal last year ruled against her.

Ms Isbester, a mother of five, took her case to Victoria's highest court after a Knox City Council panel decided Izzy be destroyed for biting a woman after the dog escaped from its owner's backyard in The Basin. Ms Isbester took her case to the High Court after the Court of Appeal ruled against her.

Izzy has been kept in a cage at the RSPCA's shelters since the dog was seized by council officers in June 2013.

Ms Isbester pleaded guilty in Ringwood Magistrates Court in September 2013 to charges including a claim Izzy bit the finger of a woman who was trying to get the terrier off her daughter's dog. The bite caused a 1.5 centimetre laceration.

The day after Ms Isbester was put on a 12-month community corrections order by a magistrate, a council panel ruled Izzy should be destroyed.

But Ms Isbester's legal team argued in the High Court on Friday that the council officer who brought the charges should never have sat on the panel that ruled on Izzy's fate.

Richard Kendall, QC, told the court the panel should have been independent and that the council officer's position on the panel reduced impartiality.

Peter Gray, QC, representing Knox City Council, said the council officer had not shown any prejudgment before she sat on the panel and had remained professional throughout.

Justices Hayne and Nettle granted Ms Isbester leave to appeal to the court. Ms Isbester was not in court on Friday.

Barrister Graeme McEwen, the founder of the Barristers Animal Welfare Panel and one of a group of lawyers working pro bono to help Ms Isbester, welcomed the development.

"The appeal will now proceed. Most special appeals are refused, so this is encouraging," he said outside court.

Mr McEwen and Ms Isbester's solicitor, Daniel Beecher, said they were unaware of a case of a dog on death row ever going before the High Court, until now.

[Little Gifts]

Hmmm, so we have an escaping dog who attacked another dog and while trying to separate the fighting dogs a woman was also bitten. It all comes back to those stupid owners again, doesn't it. If Izzy couldn't get out of her backyard then she wouldn't have spent the past 21 months in a cage. I know accidents happen but these dogs are paying with their lives. They don't understand what they have done wrong.

[Canisbellum]

15 cm laceration on a finger? That woman has fingers as long as some people's forearms.

[Little Gifts]

Are you reading from your mobile? It says 1.5cm here on my big screen computer! More a scratch than a laceration!

[Maddy]

Are you reading from your mobile? It says 1.5cm here on my big screen computer! More a scratch than a laceration!

Her injury does sound pretty minor but it occurred while she was trying to pull the dog off her daughter's dog. And by that, I have to assume the staffy wasn't just cuddling the other dog extra hard >.>

[Little Gifts]

I know, I was being a smart bum. A wound like that could easy go to the bone. Size doesn't always matter!

[Mum to Emma]

What an incredible waste of court resources

[melzawelza]

I wish the article discussed the level of injury sustained by the victim dog. In my experience investigating dog attacks there are a LOT of incidents where dogs get in scuffles that have a lot of bite inhibition and come out unscathed, but the owners put their hands literally in the dogs mouths and end up having minor injuries like the ones described. Destruction in that case would seem pretty overkill to me - a nuisance, menacing or dangerous dog declaration should suffice and place some controls on the owner and the dog.

If the victim dog was killed, then that changes things completely.

[Simply Grand]

Mel, what you said just reminded me of something. I was at a dog park once and there was a kelpie doing the kelpie stalking chase thing towards my 6kg poodle x Saxon. Saxon's pretty good at reading dogs and he was worried about this dog, as was I, Saxon ran to me with the kelpie chasing. I picked Saxon up and held him in my arms, the kelpie jumped and got my thumb with its teeth, caused probably a 1.5 x .5 cm flap of skin to lift. It bled quite a lot but no harm real harm done. What would have happened if it had grabbed Saxon instead? I don't know.

To me this incident could be explained as a dog was trying to attack my dog, I intervened and was bitten to the point of drawing blood. Should the kelpie be PTS?

Like you say, it's not black and white in these incidents but it's so hard to know the actual facts.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Simply Grand

[melzawelza]

Mel, what you said just reminded me of something. I was at a dog park once and there was a kelpie doing the kelpie stalking chase thing towards my 6kg poodle x Saxon. Saxon's pretty good at reading dogs and he was worried about this dog, as was I, Saxon ran to me with the kelpie chasing. I picked Saxon up and held him in my arms, the kelpie jumped and got my thumb with its teeth, caused probably a 1.5 x .5 cm flap of skin to lift. It bled quite a lot but no harm real harm done. What would have happened if it had grabbed Saxon instead? I don't know.

To me this incident could be explained as a dog was trying to attack my dog, I intervened and was bitten to the point of drawing blood. Should the kelpie be PTS?

Like you say, it's not black and white in these incidents but it's so hard to know the actual facts.

Yep, totally not black and white, and different to a dog attacking a person outright, too. (sorry to hear that happened, it must have been really shitty )

It's hard to say how he would have reacted if you didn't pick Saxon up either, a lot of dogs are set off by the lifting of a dog up above their heads if they're already a bit stimulated (not having a go by the way, if I had a small dog I reckon I'd be doing the same, because if you hadn't then maybe it would have been even worse!).

[Simply Grand]

Thanks mel :) it really wasn't that bad of an incident to me, Saxon was fine, I got a graze, meh. It was a thing that happened. I saw it as a dog with a high prey/herding drive that probably didn't have sufficient training and responsiveness with its owners to be in that situation. However Saxon and I do have the training and relationship to have dealt with it how we did. The problem would arise with a small fluffy dog and owner who don't, but I still don't really think the kelpie did anything other than be a dog.

Re. picking up small dogs, that's an interesting thing. I occasionally pick up Saxon and regularly pick up Riley, part of Riley's training when he's looking like reacting is to jump into my arms on cue and be held. Many a dog will jump up and sniff him, yip, bounce around, which is fine with me and Riley, but very very few actually bite or snap, so I think it's normal for them to be curious and investigate but actually biting at either dog or human is a different thing.

Having said that, in the heat of a chase like the kelpie was, I doubt it saw me, it just followed its prey. I don't think that makes a bad dog, just one that needs more management if it's going to be around other dogs.

Edited February 15, 2015 by Simply Grand

[Little Gifts]

And where was the kelpie's owner SG? Did the owner even see what happened? The issue can't be managed if the owner doesn't acknowledge it (or give a sh*t). Same old....

[MonElite]

If they release this dog back to the owner she will have a very large bill to pay to RSPCA for boarding.

Hopefully she is prepared for that.............

[The Spotted Devil]

The background is an interesting read…

http://bawp.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Isbester-v.-City-of-Knox-SCV-17-June-2014-administrative-law-questions-on-Council-decision-to-destroy-dog.pdf

[Lhok]

No I don't think this owner should be allowed the dog back after reading about numerous incidences of the dogs escaping and attacking other dogs. I also think the dog is a danger to the community given it has been in more then one attack and it would be unlikely that the dog would be a good candidate for rehoming.

--Lhok

[Cosmolo]

So many incidents!! The owner should receive a severe penalty- completely irresponsible.

[Brookestar]

The last few paragraphs by the judge sums it up incredibly well. The owner should have received a much harsher penalty. The dog does not belong in the community, so many incidents, and so much aggression, and of course they are the ones we know about, so many such incidents are never reported, because no one can identify the dogs concerned. The owner should also be banned from owning other dogs, given that 3 dogs have showed such aggression, and she is still in total denial about it all.

And of course the most questionable thing of all, even if she did succeed, and I question how that will occur, the dog cannot live with her anyway. She is currently living in public housing, and she is not allowed to have declared dangerous dogs living there. I would question what chance she would have of renting privately with a declared dangerous dog, and the alterations that would be required to appropriately house the dog. You cannot rehome dangerous dogs.

[melzawelza]

Supreme Court sides with Izzy, Knox council up for $400k in legal bills.

IZZY WINS HIGH COURT APPEAL

[mita]

Years ago, I was walking our two shelties. Passed a house with gates wide open & the home owner by the front steps. Blue cattle dog flew out gate, rocketed straight at my Shelley's throat. I instinctively put out my arm in front of Shelley. Cattle dog literally ran into my arm & bit it instead of the sheltie. To be honest, he actually looked startled himself that he'd bitten a human. Backed off & ran inside. I held up a bleeding arm & said to the owner, 'Your dog bit me!' She turned & went inside her house.

Got home, phoned the council, spoke to a dog ranger & described what'd happened. I stressed that the cattle dog was attacking my dog .... not me. The ranger was chuffed. He said it was his first experience of someone sticking up for the dog that bit them. We agreed that the owner needed to get the riot act read to her, especially as she'd totally ignored my bleeding arm. Went to the doctor, got the wound treated, had a tetanus injection. Armed with that documentation, too, the ranger went to visit that lady & she would face a penalty. But he promised that the dog wouldn't be counted as attacking a human, rather being unrestrained & trying to attack another dog.

Edited June 10, 2015 by mita

[Her Majesty Dogmad]

So many incidents!! The owner should receive a severe penalty- completely irresponsible.

Appalling, she obviously learned nothing. The dog shouldn't have sat in kennels for two years however nor should it be back in the community. How many times does a dog have to carry out "vicious attacks" on other dogs and bite people in the process before it is found to be an unsuitable pet that is unsafe to have around? I wouldn't let the owners have anything but a goldfish.

Edited June 10, 2015 by Her Majesty Dogmad