Rosebud mum defends attacking dogs: ‘They have been keeping us safe’
A Rosebud mother has defended her two American staffies — “escape artist” Tilly Devine, who attacked a girl walking to school and lunged at a woman’s throat, and Hulk, who bit a delivery man — saying neither dog had harmed her children.
South East
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A hound owner whose dogs bit a schoolgirl and a man delivering documents, and rushed at a woman’s throat, says her pet pooches are safe to be around.
Kassye Gilbert has admitted her two American staffordshire terriers, named Hulk and Tilly Devine, were involved in separate incidents in May and July.
But the 29-year-old said neither were a safety risk, and in fact Tilly Devine was a victim, having been stabbed with a butter knife earlier this year in an unrelated attack.
Neither was registered with Mornington Peninsula Shire Council at the time – and still aren’t – and Tilly Devine is now languishing in a pound racking up massive fees.
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Hulk is still at the Rosebud home the single mother shares with her three children.
Gilbert pleaded guilty to eight local law charges, including three of biting or rushing a person, at Dromana Magistrates’ Court last Thursday.
The court heard a man visited Gilbert’s house to deliver some paperwork on May 9.
As he stretched across the fence to give her the documents, Hulk jumped up and bit his forearm, causing two small bite wounds.
Then, on July 22, a woman was walking down the street when an at-large Tilly Devine rushed her, lunging at her throat, before she managed to escape and get in a car.
Just four days later a 14-year-old girl was walking to school when Tilly Devine ran at her and bit her on the leg.
In court Gilbert, representing herself, said neither dog had ever bitten any of her children.
She said Tilly Devine was “an escape artist” and Hulk never left the yard.
“They have been keeping us safe,” she said.
She said her fence was in the process of being fixed but she had been having financial difficulties so couldn’t afford to pay for the dogs’ registrations.
This was Gilbert’s second appearance at Dromana court in two weeks.
Last month she was given a good behaviour bond for her role in a bizarre shoplifting crime when she stole a tree lopper from Aldi while high on ice.
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Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said he would give Gilbert time to complete the fence upgrades and pay the two dogs’ registrations, because he wanted to make sure neither escaped again.
“Why do you have dogs like this, dogs that bite people?” Mr Lethbridge said.
“You can’t just have dogs roaming around the place biting people.”
The prosecutor asked for pound fees, which currently stand at around $5550, be paid back to the shire and a condition that the dogs be muzzled when out in public be considered when the case returns.
Gilbert will be sentenced on February 6 next year.