More dogs seized from Calgary man under court order prohibiting him from pet ownership

Denis Bagaric is seen leaving the Calgary court centre on May 6, 2024.

A Calgary man has been charged after being found in violation of a court order that prohibits him from owning animals for 15 years. Previously, Denis Bagaric's three dogs were found to be responsible for the fatal mauling of his 86-year-old next-door neighbour Betty Ann Williams in 2022.

On Oct. 10, Bagaric was charged with a single count of disobeying a court order in relation to bylaw charges stemming from that 2022 attack, police confirmed in an email to CTV.

"Two dogs have been removed from Bagaric’s home in relation to a breach of his court order prohibiting ownership of animals. The dogs are currently under the care of the City of Calgary Animal Services Centre," a CPS spokesperson confirmed.

Bagaric and Williams were next-door neighbours in Capitol Hill in northwest Calgary, when his three dogs escaped a fenced and gated backyard and attacked her while she was gardening in a back alley on June 5, 2022.

Court heard that the woman’s wounds were grievous: multiple cuts and bruises to her head and neck; the vertebrae just below her skull fractured, as was the bone under her jaw; injuries to her jugular vein branches and carotid artery; bruises on her legs and cuts on her arms.

Bagaric was fined $18,000 and prohibited from pet ownership for 15 years. He pleaded guilty to two city bylaw charges: an animal attacking a person causing severe injury, and animals running at large.

One of the original three dogs, Smoki, who was believed to have been responsible for most of Williams' wounds, was euthanized, but Bagaric argued that the other two, Cinnamon and Bossi, should be spared.

"My dogs were never trained to harm nobody," Bagaric said, in interview with CTV News earlier this year.

In May, 2024 Judge Gordon Wong said, “He (Bagaric) puts his own wishes over the safety of the community. He is not a responsible pet owner."

In June, 2024, Judge Bruce Fraser ruled that the other two dogs would be killed.

"These dogs should not be returned to the community because they are a high risk and a danger to the public," Fraser said, in June, 2024.

"The only option is to direct them to be destroyed."

Bagaric is scheduled to appear in court on December 2, 2024.

With files from CTV's Tyson Fedor and Alesia Fieldberg