Lawyer for dog owner contests description of encounter that left boy with stitches

Thestar.com
Nov. 11, 2021
Betsy Powell

The owner of a dog who bit a 13-year-old in the face has been the target of death threats and racist online comments, which his lawyer is partly attributing to the “inaccurate portrayal of the circumstances” leading up to and including the incident.

Muhammad Almutaz Alzghool told the Star he was helping tidy up after taekwondo class last Friday at Black Belt World on Bloor Street West, when the instructor urged him to approach his family’s pet in order to overcome his fear of dogs.

“He told me ‘you need to overcome your fears and if you don’t, you’re never going to be a national champion,’ ” the boy said, adding “I felt pressured to do it.”

He says when he did approach the animal, Dwaeji leapt up and bit Muhammad on his cheek and lip. The wound required 20 stitches, he told the Star.

Four days earlier, Vaughan Animal Services had released the dog, called Dwaeji, after impounding him for 24 days on suspicions he was a pit bull, a breed banned in Ontario. His owner, Tommy Chang, owner of the martial arts studio, launched a successful campaign to have Dwaeji released, triggering the province to relax rules around the detention of suspected pit bulls. Dwaeji is an American Bully.

Since returning home, Dwaeji hasn’t been the same, urinating and defecating inside the Chang residence, lawyer Leo Kinahan explained on Wednesday. So when Chang and his wife were going out for the evening, they decided Chang’s son Yohan, an instructor at the studio, would take Dwaeji to work with him, where he was leashed to a post in a back room.

Surveillance footage viewed by the Star on Wednesday shows the boy had a few encounters with the dog. On one occasion, he sits on a chair facing Dwaeji; tosses a ball in his direction and dances around him, “apparently displaying no fear,” Kinahan said. Finally, the boy enters the room carrying a table with another taekwondo student, as other students mill around. Yohan Chang appears to address the group, and doesn’t single out Muhammad alone, Kinahan said.

“That conversation never took place.”

The video then captures Muhammad approaching the animal while tables are being moved around. At that moment, Dwaeji jumps up and bites Muhammad’s cheek and lips, sending the boy scurrying out of the room holding his face.

Tommy Chang was notified and has relocated Dwaeji to an undisclosed location, said Kinahan. Chang and his family are devastated and frightened by the backlash.

Muhammad could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Also on Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford expressed sympathy for the teen and said the provincial ban on pit bulls isn’t going to change “right at this point.”