HEARTBREAKING NEWS We are very sorry to announce that today we found out that Diva owned by John Christofilakis was killed by Animal Aid on September 17. Briefly, Diva was dropped at Animal Aid by persons unknown on September 9. They were seen leaving her at the doorstep and driving off with Diva chasing after them. Despite knowing Diva’s history and John’s ill health they simply wrote a letter to his current address, received no contact and with unseemly haste killed her. More will be said about this later, but first a recap. John’s dog Diva was seized by the Shire of Yarra Ranges in November 2012 and declared a restricted breed dog. John applied to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review. We became aware of John’s plight when at his directions hearing on January 16, 2013 the VCAT member R Davis struck out the application because of non-attendance. This despite the fact that VCAT was contacted by John early the same morning advising them that he was unable to attend due to illness. John subsequently supplied a medical certificate and requested reinstatement of the review. Concerned that this may fail we approached the wonderful Barrister Peter Nugent for assistance. Peter generously prepared a fantastic submission on John’s behalf and attended the reinstatement hearing before VCAT member G Butcher. All of this at no charge! Thankfully John’s review application was reinstated An assessment of Diva against the standard was prepared by David Lowe and for the full hearing on March 7. Barrister Simone Bailey very ably represented John. At this hearing, the Council’s declaration was set aside by consent. Diva was reunited with John that afternoon. It was a fantastic reunion which we videoed and posted. Unfortunately John, who had been presented with a bravery award, for saving the life of a seriously injured train-surfer, suffered ongoing health issues. In June of last year he was hospitalised and contacted us for assistance as Diva was locked in his unit alone. Initially she was taken to Animal Aid in Coldstream for emergency accommodation. They were keen for other arrangements to be made so we organised kennelling for Diva until John was released from hospital. Very generous supporters contributed and we, with raised funds contributed the remainder. Subsequently on John’s release Diva went home. ANIMAL AID knew Diva and John’s history well. Apparently Diva had required emergency accommodation in June of this year and was recovered by John. They knew her declaration as a restricted breed dog was set aside. That should have protected her for life. They said she was not able to be rehomed because she was microchipped as an American Staffordshire Terrier and thus without proof of pedigree could not be rehomed. This is a disgrace and totally unacceptable behaviour from an organisation we had thought better of. HEARTLESS, CALLOUS AND UNCARING!
Posted on: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 12:14:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015