WEST BAY CENTRE — Eileen Gastia, a West Bay Centre woman, said her small dog was killed early Sunday morning by dogs that are "running wild" in the community
The problem, she said, is out of hand.
According to Gastia, the problem first cropped up at the end of June when her 10-year-old dog Prince was first being harassed by two yellow and a black Labrador mix dogs.
Then in early July they actually attacked Prince which resulted in a large gash in his neck.
Gastia, an ambulance attendant, nursed him back to health, but said from then on the roaming dogs have been around almost constantly, both day and night.
After coming home from an ambulance service call at 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, she was greeted by Prince; however, when her neighbour Cherie Harkness came over to see her at 11:30 a.m. that morning, she didn't have good news and told her she thought Prince was dead.
Gastia said she went out and found him out of his collar and further than he could have been for his collar to reach on the other side of the shed step, dead.
"I figured they (dogs) must have choked him because I didn't hear anything and he'd always cry when they came around," she said.
Gastia said she don't know if anyone owns the dogs, but they certainly are causing a problem and something needs to be done with them.
She has a baseball bat she carries when she goes outside and bangs on a swing set to scare off these dogs when they come around. She was out at 1 a.m. on Wednesday doing that as she said they were back harassing her other dog, Roxy, a shepherd mix.
Gastia fears they may not stop until they kill her other dog and said she can't lock it inside while she's gone because her job does not have regular hours and she can be gone away for lengthy trips.
That same morning, Harkness was also out at 2 a.m. screeching out at the dogs to try and scare them off.
Gastia's big fear is for her grandchildren, who are coming to visit next week.
"These dogs are growling at me when I go down in the back of the yard, what might they do to children? We have a nice few kids that live in the general area here, so you have to be concerned," she said. "These dogs need to be caught before someone gets seriously hurt."
Gastia has been in contact with the police, the Department of Wildlife and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Corner Brook and she said she can't seem to find out whose ultimately responsible for doing anything about this, since they are domestic animals.
"Someone should be held responsible as we have to be responsible for our pets," Harkness said.
I am not a responsible dog owner ? My pets do not roam. They go out side during the day in good weather . I don't think I should have to keep them locked up all day and all night. My pets are well taking care of , maybe other people should do the same. My pets are feed and not abused they don't have the need to roam or attack other animals . My pets are kept on my property, and these dogs are roaming killing other animals and I am the one not responsible !!!!!!!!ok