Erin Clarke can only wonder how anyone could be so callous and cowardly.

Last Wednesday morning at around 9:30, she and her two small dogs, Bandit and Thor, were walking along a trail at the Elm Street Naturalization Site at the former landfill on the northern outskirts of the city. The park contains a pair of fenced-in leash free dog areas, one for large breeds and one for small.

Clarke was walking Thor, a purebred Chihuahua, and Bandit, a Chihuahua-Jack Russell mix, and had them leashed as required. Up ahead, she glimpsed a trio of large dogs coming around the corner. Bandit saw them, too, and reacted as dogs are wont to do by barking.

This seemed to set them off, and the dogs started running toward them.

"These dogs just came charging," she said, explaining that at first, the owner was nowhere to be seen.

Standing on the trail, quite a few minutes walk from her car, Clarke's only move was to pick up her dogs in the hopes they'd be out of range.

It was to no avail. The three dogs caught up to them, and two of the larger animals, one with a brindle coat (brown, black and white) and one black and white, jumped up on her, trying to get at Bandit and Thor. The brindle-coated dog latched on to Thor's neck and ripped him from Clarke's arms.

The two dogs tore into Thor, tossing him around like a chew toy.

"They were both just going crazy on my dog," Clarke said.

Finally, the dogs' owner came running and did his best to get his animals under control. Thor was on the ground, bleeding badly. Clarke also heard Bandit yelp during the attack, but at the time didn't realize he also got a nasty bite in the hind leg.

Clarke said the owner grabbed a hold of the brindle-coated dog's collar, pulling him along with his head to the ground as they walked back to the parking lot. He sent the other two ahead.

When they got to the lot, Clarke got in her car and, while tightly holding Thor, drove to her apartment on Elm Street, where she dropped Bandit. Her husband then drove them to the Port Colborne Animal Hospital just a few minutes away.

There was nothing they could do. When Clarke handed Thor over to the vet, he was still bleeding profusely and was dead a few moments later.

Clarke said the man told her he would meet her at the vet, but he never came and as far as she knows, never even called.

The matter is now being investigated by the Welland and District Humane Society. The man is described as white, 35 to 45 years old, five-foot-six inches and clean shaven. He was wearing blue jeans and a blue windbreaker and drove away in a white Buick SUV.

The man may also be walking with a limp, as Clarke said she saw him fall to the ground in the attack, injuring his leg.

The third dog, meanwhile, is described as all black.

Clarke said everything happened so fast and that it was difficult to get a perfect description. However, she said the dogs resembled pit bulls, which are barred in Ontario. The 2005 legislation banning the breed had a grandfather clause for dogs already in the province.

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However, humane society executive director John Greer said the breed is still around, meaning they've either been illegally imported or bred.

"They're out there," he said. "Every now and then you come across them."

A description of the attack was posted on Facebook, and Clarke said she's received numerous comments, including several pointing to a local man suspected of being a pit bull breeder. That information has been forwarded to the humane society, but Clarke said she checked it out herself and didn't see the man she saw on the trail.

"If I was to see him again I would recognize him," she said.

Greer said that information may lead to a separate investigation, explaining a vet must make the determination that the dog is in fact a pit bull.

For this case, he said, the investigator will gather the evidence which will be used to support any civil action Clarke pursues. This could take the form of compensation and could go as far as ordering the dogs being put down.

Assuming the dogs are legal breeds, Greer said this all could have been avoided had the owner kept them on a leash.

"Something like this, that's just irresponsible in our eyes," he said. "Ultimately it's the dog that pays the price."

Clarke, however, said she doesn't want to see the dogs put down; she just wants the owner to take responsibility. She explained Thor and Bandit are more than just pets; she got them in the wake of losing her father, a time when she was dealing with depression.

"I'm not out for blood," she said. "I just want for him to do the right thing.

"That dog — nobody knows how much that dog meant to me."

Anyone with information is asked to call the Welland SPCA animal control office at 905-735-1552, ext. 2.