Lawyers for the owners of a dog deemed a dangerous breed have asked the state government to step in to save the dog from death row, where it has been for more than two years.
A hearing was to begin on Thursday before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to decide the fate of the dog, but did not proceed after lawyer Alysha Tuziak told the court she was seeking a ministerial reprieve for three-year-old Mylo.
Ms Tuziak has sent a letter to the Minister for Primary Industries, Peter Walsh, applying to have Mylo exempted from the different restricted breed dog provisions of the Domestic Animals Act 1994.
Under the act, the governor in council has the power to intervene.
Ms Tuziak told Fairfax Media that the decision on whether Mylo lived or died was now in the government’s hands.
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She said Mylo’s owners, 13-year-old Brodie Gray and her mother Jessica, had been struggling to cope with the long legal battle to try to save Mylo.
“It’s a very stressful and difficult situation for them, particularly when they are only allowed to see Mylo for half an hour every week,” Ms Tuziak said.
The scheduled VCAT hearing on Thursday was going to be the fifth separate legal hearing to determine if Mylo should be put down.
Mylo has been held at the Lost Dogs Home in North Melbourne since May 8, 2012, after escaping from the family’s Sunshine West home and being seized by a Brimbank City Council officer.
The “Stop them from killing Mylo” Facebook page now has more than 7400 “likes” and Jessica Gray has twice taken her case on appeal to the Supreme Court and won after VCAT repeatedly ordered Mylo be put down.
Supreme Court Justice Jack Rush upheld Mrs Gray’s latest appeal in February, ordering Brimbank council pay the legal costs of the hearing and that the case return to VCAT for the third time.
Brimbank council has been determined to destroy Mylo, claiming the dog is a restricted breed pit bull terrier. It has agreed not to put Mylo down until a final decision is made by the government.
Mrs Gray claims DNA tests she paid for in the US proved Mylo was an American Staffordshire terrier cross, not a pit bull.
Her lawyer’s letter to Mr Walsh included a report from Geelong veterinarian Jack Ayerbe, who examined Mylo and concluded the dog could not be declared an American pit bull terrier.
Mr Ayerbe said Mylo complied with less than three of the conformation criteria and less than 10 of the physical characteristics criteria of a pit bull.
And a report by dog behavioural expert Jean-Claude Bertoni claims Mylo had such a docile temperament it could be a therapy dog used in hospitals and nursing homes.
Mrs Gray says she will never give up fighting for Mylo, and has even offered to move interstate with the dog, but Brimbank council has rejected the offer.
There have been claims Brimbank council has spent more than $100,000 in legal fees trying to have Mylo put down.
