A Lachute-area couple is mourning the loss of a beloved pet husky — who they say was viciously attacked by two other dogs.
Debbie Funchion says she adopted Sadie about seven years ago, when she was a puppy. "She was a member of the family," she says.
Last Sunday evening, Funchion says her boyfriend, Travis Flockhart, was walking Sadie in the community of St. André d'Argenteuil, along their regular trail. At one point, two large bull mastiffs came up from behind and attacked Sadie.
"My boyfriend was going to turn and come home, but he noticed there were these two huge bull mastiffs that were loose running around," Funchion said. "So he turned and decided to go around a different route which led to a daycare. He almost made it to the daycare when these dogs snuck up and locked their jaws on my husky."
She suffered dozens of bites in the attack, while Flockhart screamed for help. At one point, Flockhart tried to stop the attack, but the dogs attacked him, too.
"These dogs just kept circling him, and mauling his hands and his arms and his legs, and they didn't stop at all," Funchion says. "Eventually, somebody heard their cries."
Flockhart was brought to a hospital in nearby Hawkesbury, Ont., while the badly injured Sadie was brought to a veterinary surgeon in Laval, who quickly discovered there was no way they could save Sadie unless the couple wanted to resort to an expensive experimental procedure.
"It ended up that we had to put her down," she says. "The worst thing about all of this was that it was so preventable."
Funchion says the dogs' owners live nearby, and keep their dogs in an outdoor kennel she describes as a "crappy chicken coop". She says she went to police about the attack, who told her they couldn't do anything about it.
"Because nobody had reported the multiple previous attacks that these dogs have done in town, the cops couldn't really do much to charge [the owners] with anything," she says.
Funchion says they may consider a civil lawsuit, but for the moment, she and Flockhart are trying to adjust to life without their beloved pet.
"We're devastated," she says. "Everything we did revolved around the welfare of Sadie. She brought us so much joy."
Funchion says Flockhart will recover from the bite marks, but he hasn't been able to sleep in the week since the attack.
She says they also spent $4,000 on the night of the attack, for Sadie's surgery, euthanasia and cremation. Now, they've set up a GoFundMe page to cover those costs, potential legal costs, and the cost of Flockhart's PTSD treatment. Flockhart is Australian, and that treatment is not covered.