Judge cuts award to teen in dog-mauling

  DAVID COOPER/TORSTAR news service

Jynnie Kent was mauled by her grandmother’s dogs when she was 11. She is now 18. Inset photo shows the scars sustained from the attack.

• “Had she (Jynnie Kent) not gone into the back yard on her own and entered the pens she would not have been injured.”

Ontario Superior Court Justice Darla Wilson in her written judgment

 A grandmother has been ordered to pay her granddaughter thousands of dollars in damages for a dog mauling eight years ago.

Heather Laverdiere, who breeds French Mastiffs, must compensate her estranged granddaughter Jynnie Kent for serious injuries sustained when she was 11.

But Ontario Superior Court Justice Darla Wilson reduced the original $245,000 award set by another judge by 25 per cent because she found the victim, now 18, contributed to her own misfortune.

The judge also threw out Kent’s claim against the Township of Uxbridge, which had inspected Laverdiere’s dog pens.

Reached yesterday, Kent said she was disappointed she lost against the township, and has won only against her grandmother, whom she believes will never pay up. “I’ll never get a thing from her,” she said. “I hate her.”

A woman reached at Lav­erdiere’s phone number in Alberta, where she has moved, hung up when asked for comment.

The attack occurred on Oct. 26, 2003 when Kent and her 12-year-old sister were visiting their grandmother in Uxbridge, Ont.

Laverdiere kept six adult French Mastiffs — also called Dogues du Bordeaux — and three puppies in contravention of Uxbridge’s bylaw, which only allows a maximum of three dogs per resident.

Kent testified she entered the pens and, as she turned to leave, was attacked, initially by two of the dogs, and fell to the ground and blacked out.

Her body was torn in 13 places, and she had more than 150 puncture wounds, she said in an interview.

She still has scars all over her body and recurring pain in her right leg, she said.

Laverdiere testified that her dogs were very well trained and had never shown signs of aggression.

The former TTC bus driver countersued for more than $993,000, claiming damages from the plaintiffs and Uxbridge as a result of the dogs having been destroyed or lost after the attack. The judge threw out her claim.