2nd appeal dismissed for man found guilty in dog attack on teens

The owner offive Labradordogs who attacked three teenagers had his appeal dismissed by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal on Monday.

Robert Carpenter has been fighting the court order to have all of themeuthanized since the decision was made in October 2016.

• Pack of dogs to be euthanized after attacking 3 Ponteix, Sask., teens

"It's to be expected. I don't get too worked up about stuff, but it seems like the system is I don't like to use the word, but corrupt," Carpenter said after his latest appeal was dismissed.

Last year,Swift Currentprovincial court Judge KarlBazinfound Carpenterguilty of two counts of owning dogs that attacked people.

The order included instructions for the RCMP to take possession of the dogs, Rainbow, Chubs, Lillie, Joey and Whinney, and have them euthanizedby a licensed veterinarian.

The Court of Appealheard Carpenter had essentially "stashed" the dogs somewhere, meaning he did not give them up to the RCMP nor does he have them on his property.

• Man found guilty in dog attack on teens failed to give up pets, says RCMP

The court order to have the dogseuthanizedis suspended temporarily when an appeal is submitted.

The appeal

On Monday, Carpenter argued the decision should be considered void because thelegislation usedsingular language, so he thought there should have been a separate hearing for each dog. He also argued the trial judge never declared the dogs dangerous.

The court granted him leave to appeal his sentence. However, the three judge's dismissed the appeal in the end. They noted the trial judge interpreted the legislation correctly in both circumstances and was correct the application of it.

Carpenter has appealed the original ruling once prior,but that was dismissed by a Swift Current judge. Despite the latest dismissal, he said he'll appeal the decision with the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal andif that doesn't result in anything take it to higher.

"I'm going to appeal it at the Supreme Court," he said. "I'm going to go through as many loopholes as I can because, you know, I think one of my dogs is guilty, not five."

The attack

At the time of the attack in Pontiex, Sask., the gate to Carpenter's yard was left open because of a missing hinge. He previously stated he knew the gate needed to be replaced.

Court documents show the young teenagerswere hanging out on the street when the dogs approached and circled them.

A boy who tried to bike away was bitten on his thigh, and documents also show a girl was pushed over by one dog and then attacked by all five.

"My dogs did not bite that girl except the one dog," Carpenter said in court. "I should have put her down."

When questioned by one of the three judges, he did not dispute that the animals did in fact attack in a pack.

If you want to talk community safety, I think people need to fear the government and these people in power more than you need to fear some dogs.-Robert Carpenter, dog breeder

At one point, Carpenter had also argued one ofthe girls provoked the attack by running from them.

Rainbow, one of the dogs whoattacked the teens, had previously bitten someone in Calgary.

"Of course, I felt bad about it. I don't like to see anybody get hurt or traumatized, but I'm not going to go blubber about it and wail," he said Monday.

When asked about the community's perception of safety, he said his dogs should be the least of people'sworries.

"If you want to talk community safety, I think people need to fear the government and these people in power more than you need to fear some dogs."

Carpenter said he loves raising dogs because people love dogs and it's "an easy sale,"adding he wasn't raising dogs to fight.

Ponteix, Sask., is about 276 kilometres southwest of Regina.