A 57-year-old Varney grandmother is distraught and wondering when she will see her two beloved dogs again after they were taken away nearly three months ago by animal control.
Deanna Wheeler’s two American Bullies Nove and Dexter have been held under the Dog Owners’ Liability Act by West Grey’s animal control officer since March 15, after the two pets escaped their family’s yard.
Nove and Dexter were located by a passerby who brought them to a veterinarian clinic in Durham. But when Wheeler went to retrieve them from the vet, she was told the pups could not be released to her because the animal control officer said they were pit bulls – a banned breed in Ontario.
They’ve been kept there since.
Wheeler has taken every effort to prove Nove and Dexter are not pit bulls. She provided the animal control officer with American Bully Kennel Club registration, proof of pedigree and microchip information to show the dogs are in fact American Bullies.
A genetic breed DNA test also confirmed Nove and Dexter are 100 per cent pure American Bully.
None of this led to the release of Nove and Dexter. Wheeler says West Grey’s animal control officer has continued to insist she surrender ownership of the dogs.
She has refused, but recently proposed a “soft surrender” through her counsel and arranged to have Nove and Dexter sent to dog foster care in Quebec until the outcome of a legal appeal she is launching against the Municipality of West Grey.
The municipality has yet to respond to this proposal, she says.
The Dog Owners’ Liability Act says a pit bull includes any dog “that has an appearance and physical characteristics that are substantially similar” to pit bull terriers, Staffordshire bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers or American pit bull terriers.
The animal control officer for West Grey is apparently holding Nove and Dexter under this aspect of the legislation – claiming American Bullies are substantially similar to a pit bull.
What is an American Bully?
According to the president of the American Bully Kennel Club and one of the creators of the breed Dave Wilson, the American Bully is “not a pit bull or pit bull type.”
“The American Bully is a breed of its own and not to be confused with any other purebred breeds,” Wilson says in a letter supplied to Wheeler. “It was created in the early 1990s by various breeders looking to create the ultimate companion breed.”
Wilson’s letter explains the American Bully derived from other specific bulldog and terrier breeds to produce dogs with exceptional temperaments that would best serve them in a family, neighbourhood setting.
“The American Bully like all pure breeds shares ancestry with various breeds, but has been bred for many generations to have its own unique traits,” Wilson says.
A change.org petition addressed to West Grey Chief Administrative Officer Laura Johnston demanding the release of the two dogs back into the custody of Wheeler has garnered more than 27,000 signatures.
Bayshore Broadcasting News reached out to West Grey’s CAO for comment. In an email, Johnston says “all parties have counsel and the matter is proceeding through adjudication. No further comment can be made at this time.”
Wheeler has already incurred nearly $10,000 in legal fees trying to get her dogs back, with a court battle still ahead. She also expects to be billed thousands more in boarding costs for the time her dogs have been kept.
She lives with her three grandchildren — Angelica, Breydan and Ciara — and says the ordeal has been hard on the entire house. They just want their dogs back.
“I wake up thinking about them both, worrying about them,” Wheeler says of Nove and Dexter. “These dogs are our family. And to think of them being in cages is driving me nuts.”
A request was also sent to Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker for comment on this story. He did not respond by publication time.
