Dog owner found guilty after huskies attack pigs

Irena McElwee-Roman, 47, of Flat 5, Baider House, Fosse Andre, St Peter Port, denied two charges of failing to restrain her animals – one for each dog – but was found guilty. Sentencing has been adjourned.

Her plea rested on the fact that she had not let the dogs free anywhere near a pig farm, and after they had run towards it, she had not been present to be able to restrain them.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said that in terms of the ridiculousness of a defence argument, on a one to 10 scale, this was a 12.

Advocate Marc Davies, prosecuting, told the court that the defendant had been walking the dogs to her grandparents’ home in the Water Lanes, St Peter Port.

Just before she got there she let them off their leads on the assumption that they would complete the journey on their own.

The dogs ran off, all the way to La Ramee, where they attacked the piglets on a farm.

A number of the pigs were injured, four suffering a traumatic skin injury, but all survived.

States vet David Chamberlain gave a statement in evidence to the court that he went to the farm after a call from the owner of the piglets.

Four were huddled together in the undergrowth and all nine were very nervous.

Mr Chamberlain later took a call from the GSPCA which said a couple by the name of McElwee had gone to the Animal Shelter to collect their huskies.

Through Facebook he was able to identify the defendant, who was pictured with the dogs. There was evidence too that they had escaped from their home regularly.

In a voluntary interview, the defendant accepted responsibility for the dogs and said they had run off before.

She accepted that they should never have been off the lead anywhere near the piglets.

When the dogs had ‘zoomed off,’ possibly because of the smell, she had not been able to run after them. They were friendly dogs, she said, but when they saw something they chased it.

When told that the piglets’ owner would incur costs as a result of the attack, the defendant indicated that she would not be in a position to pay.

She told the court that she had been shocked at how much damage her dogs had caused and could only imagine that they must have been playing.

She accepted that one of the dogs had blood on its mouth when she collected it from the GSPCA.

She said she did not see how she could be accused of failing to restrain her dogs.

When she let them off the lead, they had been nowhere near the pigs as the farm was miles away. She could not have stopped them from attacking the pigs as she had not been there at the time.

Advocate Davies’ cross-examination was a single question. He asked the defendant if she would agree that her dogs would not have attacked the piglets, had she not let them off the lead? She said she would.

McElwee had previously admitted failing to hold a dog licence, and, in a separate incident, charges of assaulting a police officer and resisting police.

Sentencing was adjourned so a probation report could be prepared.