The sheepdog that bit a baby in Rembrandtlaan at the beginning of this month has now left the Coevorder residential area. According to a spokesperson for the municipality, the owner has now voluntarily placed all his dogs elsewhere.
The municipality says it does not know where exactly that is. Spokesperson Alieke Wijnholds does say that the animals no longer reside at the owner’s address nor in the municipality of Coevorden. The man still remains the owner of the dogs.
Damian Derks was carrying his daughter Hailey in a baby carrier on March 8 when a dog bit her. He was walking with his family along a front garden in Rembrandtlaan when a dog attacked his daughter. Another dog then bit the four-month-old baby on her knee. The girl suffered bite wounds and Damian’s dog lost part of its ear.
The incident caused unrest in the street, where there is also a school, childcare and after-school care. Several local residents reported the incident to the municipality of Coevorden. Hailey’s parents filed a police report.
Dogs must be kept on a leash and muzzled after the incident. This means that animals must always be kept on a leash and wear a muzzle outside. The municipality was also in discussions with the owner about voluntarily handing over the dogs so that they could be examined for their behavior.
Now that the dogs are in another municipality, the municipality is taking their hands off them. There will be no more behavioral research. “We don’t deal with that in any other municipality,” says Wijnholds.
Coevorden also does not contact the new municipality about the risks surrounding the dogs. “Of course you don’t want to run the risk of the same thing happening again in another place,” says Wijnholds. “But when the dogs go to another municipality, the owner is obliged to report this to that municipality himself. We let it go.”
The municipality therefore does not check whether the dogs wear a muzzle and are on a leash outside their new home.
For Damian Derks it is a relief that the dogs are no longer walking around in his neighborhood. Yet he also has some doubts: “The dogs are dangerous. They have proven that. And the problem is not solved now, but the problem has shifted. I don’t think that is really possible.”
In a response to local residents, the municipality says that the dogs will no longer return to the address on Rembrandtlaan. If they do return to another address in the municipality of Coevorden, the municipality still wants to discuss an investigation into the behavior of the dogs with the owner.
