This spring, Joanne Drodge of Calgary had to make the hardest decision of her life. She put her dogs down.

Max and Georgia, both schnauzer-poodle mixes, were attacked by two dogs in May.

Drodge's dog walker, Mike Dawson, was with them when he noticed two off-leash pit bulls across the street.

"The pit bulls spotted us walking, and just casually walked across the street and approached us," he says. "As soon as they got there, they just went to town on the dogs I was walking, and just started biting."

Dawson managed to pull off the pit bulls, and a passerby helped hold them down until police arrived.

Drodge's two dogs survived the attack: Max was bitten on the shoulder, and Georgia had four severe bites near her belly. But eventually Drodge realized she had to put them down.

Max and Georgia, the schnauzer-poodle mixes, are missed by Joanne Drodge, who pledged to find out the identities of the owners of the dogs who attacked hers. (Joanne Drodge )

The owners of the pit bulls were issued a ticket, but Drodge is frustrated with how the city handled the situation.

She says it was hard to get any information, and she doesn't even know if the ticket was paid. She was told the dogs were returned to the owners, because the bylaw department was confident something like that wouldn't happen again — but she doesn't know why they came to that conclusion.

Plus, she wants more than just information. She wants to be able to speak to the owners.

"All I want to do is calmly knock on the door and introduce myself, and say, 'Can we please work this out? Please.'

"I don't want to publicly shame anybody, you know. I can appreciate life happens and these things happen," she said.

"But it doesn't excuse you from being accountable. I want resolution, and I want closure."

Joanne Drodge's dog Georgia is pictured. In Calgary, 140 dog bites were reported last year. (Joanne Drodge )

Drodge had pet insurance, so she isn't facing a huge vet bill, but she says she'd like an apology and the $260 she paid out of pocket.

To get that will be complicated. Because of privacy laws, the city can't just hand out contact information — but there's a legal process she can go through.

Drodge has been told she could go to civil court and file a suit against the owners of the pit bulls. There are legal steps she can follow to get their names so she can file the suit.

Drodge says she'll try to go to court — even if it is complicated, costly and may not turn out the way she hopes.

"I could choose to go or not go," she said. "But in the memory of my dogs, I feel I owe it to them to go down and follow through."

Max, pictured, was one of Joanne Drodge's two dogs. She said she feels she must try to find the owners in the memory of her dogs. (Joanne Drodge )

She also says she's not the only one in this position, so she wants to do the right thing.

According to the City of Calgary, there were 140 reported dog bites last year, 114 of which were confirmed to meet the bylaw's definition of a bite: skin was punctured. Statistics are not yet available for this year.

Investigating dog bites

So what happens when a dog attacks?

The first thing, says city community standards inspector Doug Anderson, is bylaw officers arrive on the scene and try to determine what has happened and which dog is at fault. They also figure out whether the dog has any "priors."

Once they have that information, they determine the penalty. If the attack isn't serious, the dog's owners are issued a $250 fine. But if an animal is killed or a person injured, bylaw may defer to a judge to determine the penalty.

A judge will determine how much to fine the owner, and whether to apply any restrictions. The dog may be ordered to wear a muzzle when in public, for example, or be banned from off-leash areas. In some cases, Anderson said the dog could be removed from the owner and destroyed.

Hear more about what happens when dogs attack:

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If, as in Drodge's case, the owner wants more, they have to go to civil court.

She says she'll do that, but she wants other dog owners to know how complex the process is. And she wants them to know it before they need to.

"My advice to people is, you've got to have eyes around the sides and back and front of your head when you go out with your dogs," Drodge says.

"Whether it's in a dog park or the street, you have to be very street-wise.

"And you have to know, if something happens, you're in for a tough road."

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.