A Verdun woman says there's a dog owner in her neighborhood with something on her conscience.
Late on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 23, Joanna Gullotti and her 14-year-old daughter were out in a park along the Verdun riverside, walking their beloved poodle Rocco. At one point, a large Alaskan malamute started barking at Rocco. Moments later, the big dog broke away from its owner and charged at Rocco and the teenage girl.
The girl barely had enough time to scoop Rocco up into her arms, but the malamute attacked the poodle, killing him instantly.
The girl was not injured, but was understandably traumatized by the attack.
The trauma she and her daughter suffered as a result of the attack was harsh enough, but Gullotti says despite the screams of eyewitnesses, the dog's owner disappeared soon after the attack, and has not yet been identified by police.
"I feel like an injustice has happened to me," Gullotti told CJAD 800.
Worse still, Gullotti also says the 9-1-1 operator she called refused to send police to the scene.
"The 9-1-1 operator refused to dispatch police, claiming, because the dog didn't attack a human being, they wouldn't sent police there," she says. "Had they been on the scene, they would have been able to catch the lady taking off with the Alaskan malamute."
Gullotti says she's filed a complaint with police, but isn't confident anything will come of it. Two weeks after the attack, neither the police, nor the borough of Verdun, has followed up with her.
"Everybody's handing the ball to one another. And here I am, I have no dog, my daughter needs a doctor. She needs to go see a psychiatrist because she's missed one week of school, and every time she comes through the door, she's looking for her dog. There's no dog here. She's just gone. And nobody accounts for this loss."