Toronto police have seized a dog believed responsible for attacks on three people at a Vaughan convenience store Wednesday.
The German shepherd, an eight-year-old female weighing 90 pounds, was picked up Thursday morning in North York after police received an anonymous tip, according to York police Det. Const. Alex Samitz.
The dog, which goes by the name of Krysia, was taken by animal control officers and placed in quarantine. “We have to notify the health department but we’re told the dog had its shots in November,” Samitz said. The owner of the dog was apparently visiting relatives in Vaughan when he stopped by the convenience store.
His name was not immediately released, and there was no immediate word on whether he faces any charges. The attacks left a 66-year-old man with wounds to his face and arm and also sent a 16-year-old woman to hospital with a shoulder injury. Tony Palazzolo was attacked as he left the Vaughan convenience store, where he buys a newspaper every day.
As he left the store, a German shepherd at the entrance outside lunged at Palazzolo, biting him on the face. Palazzolo, who stands only 5-foot-3 and weighs 120 pounds, put up his left arm to protect himself. “Thank God I put my arm up,” he said Thursday morning while recovering at his home, where he and his wife, Josie, have lived for 20 years.
Although Palazzolo was wearing a winter coat and a sweater, the dog chewed through to his arm, shredding his flesh almost to the bone. He cried out and stumbled back into the store, where he discovered that the dog owner was still inside. “I went to the owner,” Palazzolo recalled. “He looked at me, and took the dog and ran.”
A woman in the store came to Palazzolo’s assistance and drove him to his nearby home, where his wife took him to hospital. Josie, 56, said she drove looking straight ahead. She couldn’t bear to look at her husband, whose mouth was bleeding so badly he could barely talk. When he got to hospital, Palazzolo received three stitches to the mouth and another 19 to his left arm, which took the brunt of the attack
In the waiting room of the hospital, Josie says she heard another young woman discussing a dog attack. “I kept hearing, ‘dog, dog’ and I said, what happened? And they told me and I said, ‘Oh my God, it’s the same dog.’” York Regional Police say that the same dog attacked three people at the same convenience store within a matter of minutes.
Investigators have taken surveillance video from the store owner to see if this will help them identify the dog owner and the dog.
Police say that the incident began at about 8:40 a.m. Wednesday, when a man standing about 5-foot-7 and wearing a dark jacket and dark toque entered the convenience store on Glen Shields Ave., leaving the 100-pound dog untied outside. The dog first bit a 16-year-old female passerby on the shoulder, then turned on Palazzolo.
The dog also lunged at a 41-year-old woman as she tried to go into the store. She was able to get away and was not hurt. Palazzolo could barely talk Thursday morning, his face swollen.
“I don’t blame the dog. I blame the owner,” he said. “It attacked three people. It should have been on a leash.” Meanwhile his wife was preparing to take him to a clinic for rabies shots.
“I have to take care of my husband,” she said. “That’s the most important thing right now.” She wonders about what kind of dog owner would run away like this. “He didn’t care what the dog did to my husband,” she said.
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