Amy Cotie and her family are questioning their faith in their fellow man after their beloved dog was killed during an alleged hit-and-run in front of her kids.
Cotie doesn't think the collision was intentional but she and husband Glen Francis are convinced the driver drove off knowing he or she struck the dog, a male chow chow-terrier mix named Taz, Tuesday afternoon.
"There was no way that the (person) didn't know that they hit something," Francis said. "Whoever it was, man or woman, they could have had the decency to stop and apologize or offer some help."
Recalling Taz's "teddy-bear face" and "short, stubby legs," Cotie said the family is distraught after losing their dog of five years.
"He was like our third kid," Cotie said. "I figured we'd have 10 more years with that dog."
Francis, Cotie and their two sons -- Marshal, 5, and Gregory, 9 -- were outside their Day Street home in Transcona when they heard a loud thump, thinking it was a car rear-ending another.
Cotie said she looked to the road and reacted in horror.
"There's my dog lying there and the guy just kept going. He didn't stop," Cotie said.
A man driving a van stopped to tell the family Taz was run over by a truck, which none of them got a good look at, Cotie said.
"(Taz) died instantly, so that was the only blessing that came out of it," Cotie said.
Under the Highway Traffic Act, a motorist who injures or kills a domestic animal is required to stop and report the incident to the animal's owner, if he or she can be found, a peace officer or municipal clerk, and move the animal off the road, if practical.
Cotie knows it's against city bylaws to allow a dog to run loose but said it was only temporary while they were all in the yard and Francis cleaned out their van before driving her to work.
"It's not like (Taz) to run into the street like that," Cotie said.
chris.kitching@sunmedia.ca
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