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Trevor the dog gets heavier restrictions

Trevor the dog's security breach has tightened the rules surrounding his daily walks. The German shepherd/Rottweiler cross was caught without a muzzle last Friday, forcing bylaw officers to snatch the dog from the Mae Bachur animal shelter.
trevor

Trevor the dog’s security breach has tightened the rules surrounding his daily walks.

The German shepherd/Rottweiler cross was caught without a muzzle last Friday, forcing bylaw officers to snatch the dog from the Mae Bachur animal shelter and put him in the city pound.

People who volunteer to walk Trevor must now attend a presentation on Trevor’s court-ordered restrictions, a judge decided Monday afternoon.

But the new condition wouldn’t have prevented Friday’s incident, said shelter board member Rachel Westfall.

“Even going with the more rigorous process that we’re going to be going through with our walkers now, it probably wouldn’t have prevented it from happening, unfortunately,” she said.

The dog walker who removed Trevor’s muzzle knew he was breaking the law.

“When he removed the muzzle, he apparently told the woman he was introducing Trevor to that he could get into a lot of trouble for doing this,” said Westfall.

The man signed an affidavit for Monday’s court hearing swearing he understood that the muzzle wasn’t to be taken off.

“Trevor was becoming so good that maybe (the walker) was becoming a bit complacent,” said Westfall.

“It was a poor judgment call on his part,” she said. “Apparently he feels very bad this happened.”

Before the incident, the only barrier to walking Trevor was signing a document assuring the shelter that Trevor’s restrictions were understood.

Trevor made national headlines this summer after a legal battle erupted over his custody between the city and the shelter.

The “dog on death row” was nearly euthanized for biting two people, but the shelter and animal rights advocates fought for his release.

He was deemed a dangerous dog by a judge in October, but was granted the freedom to be adopted after undergoing a rehabilitation program.

Asked if the shelter felt it had broken the public’s trust for flouting his hard-fought-for restrictions, Westfall said the shelter couldn’t have known the dog walker was negligent.

“We did our due diligence,” she said. “We had him read the order and made him fully oriented as to what Trevor’s restrictions were. We certainly did screw up in that this person shouldn’t have had Trevor, but there were no warning signs of that.”

Currently, there are three approved dog walkers and more will likely follow.

The man who removed the muzzle won’t be walking Trevor anymore.

“That particular dog walker is not on our list,” said Westfall.

Contact James Munson at

jamesm@yukon-news.com.