VANCOUVER -- Yuri was an assistance dog who helped a woman with autism navigate her daily life, a therapy animal who comforted palliative care patients and an integral part of his Vancouver family.

That all ended Saturday afternoon when the miniature pinscher was eviscerated by a pit bull in what Yuri’s owner describes as an unprovoked attack.

Mia Johnson and her daughter were walking Yuri and a second dog on-leash when they encountered another dog owner at 10th Avenue and Dunbar Street. The other woman was walking a Staffordshire bull terrier, one of the breeds commonly referred to as pit bulls.

“The dog was straining on its leash and it went right for our dog,” Johnson said.

“I saw it had a muzzle on but everything happened so fast. The muzzle came off and it went after one of our dogs.”

The bigger dog’s jaws locked onto Yuri. People nearby who witnessed the sudden attack ran over and began hitting the pit bull, poking its eyes and pulling on its ears, but it wouldn’t let go.

By the time it finally loosened its grip, Yuri was barely alive.

“My dog was disembowelled. I picked him up and everything inside him was just in my hands,” Johnson said.

“(My daughter) was screaming. She was trying to go after the lady and calling her a murderer. Everything was just out of control.”

One of the witnesses drove Johnson and Yuri to a nearby vet clinic, where she had no choice but to have him put down.

“There was nothing you could do. There was more of him outside his body than there was in. He’s so small,” Johnson said of the five-pound animal.

Johnson was also bitten on the hand during the attack, and had to be taken to the hospital for a tetanus shot. The other dog’s owner was bitten on the hand and face.

Yuri had just turned eight years old the day before the attack and was a timid, well-behaved animal, according to Johnson. He regularly interacted with other dogs and didn’t need a leash, though Johnson said she always used one.

“He wasn’t the kind of dog that would have tried to make a dog attack him. He doesn’t growl. He’s just tiny,” she said.

Yuri and the family’s second miniature pinscher, Mary, acted as service dogs for Johnson’s 27-year-old daughter Laurel Owen, who has autism and suffers from anxiety.

Having the dogs with her gave Owen the confidence she needed to learn to use the bus and begin work at a volunteer job.

“This is a terrible loss. It’s like losing a family member, because they do so much for her. I feel more secure about her because I know they’re helping her,” Johnson said.

Yuri was also certified as a therapy dog with St. John Ambulance and spent two years visiting patients in palliative care at Blenheim Lodge, a Vancouver care home.

Johnson is still in shock after the attack. She’s also living with a brain tumour, and said the dogs have helped her feel she can manage life as a single parent to an adult with autism.

“My daughter and two dogs, they’re like everything to me,” she said.

Before the attack, she scoffed at the owners of small dogs who were constantly scooping up their animals into their arms, seemingly afraid of the smallest dangers.

Now, things are different.

“I just want to tell people that if you’re walking a little dog and you see an aggressive one coming toward you, just pick it up. Don’t even take a chance,” Johnson said.

The pit bull has been seized and the attack is now under investigation, according to John Gray, assistant manager of animal control for the City of Vancouver. A report has also been made with police.

“Depending on the outcome of the investigation, there could possibly be charges that’ll be pending,” Gray said, adding that it’s too early to say if the animal will be euthanized.

The city has the right to hold the dog for 21 days to collect evidence.

blindsay@vancouversun.com

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