A woman has been found guilty of having a dangerously out-of-control dog after her “good-natured” pet bit a delivery driver.
Janet MacFarlane’s German shepherd, Diego, bit the worker through a gap in the gate, leaving him needing stitches.
But when the man pointed out what had happened to MacFarlane she simply “shrugged and walked away”, a court was told.
MacFarlane, 65, was tried at Inverness Sheriff Court on a charge of having a dog dangerously out of control at her Drumnadrochit home on April 14 of last year.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Sharon Ralph, the delivery driver told the court that when he arrived at the property the dog was initially called away by MacFarlane’s husband.
‘Your dog had just bitten me’
He said he did not notice the dog returning as he passed the parcel over to MacFarlane – but it was at this point that he was bitten through a gap in the gate.
“I said to the lady: ‘Your dog had just bitten me and she shrugged and walked away,” he said.
“I didn’t know it was there.
“She pointed to the fence and said ‘Well we have got a sign’.”
The court heard that the entrance to MacFarlane’s property featured three signs warning visitors about the four-legged residents, including one that said: “Beware of the dog, it may bite, you have been warned.”
The driver told Sheriff Sara Matheson that he went to accident and emergency in Inverness following the incident, where he received butterfly stitches for the wound.
The incident was reported and police visited MacFarlane’s home.
After being cautioned she volunteered that she usually puts Diego in the car when people call.
She told them: “On this occasion, as I was approaching the gate to put the dog in the car, the guy was putting his hands through the gate when the dog caught him.”
Taking to the witness box in her own defence, MacFarlane explained that she only usually put Diego in her car because his barking made it hard to have a conversation with callers.
She said the signs had been at the property when she moved in and were not referencing her own German shepherd.
‘A beautiful good-natured dog’
She said six-year-old Diego was a “beautiful, good-natured dog” who had “never bitten anybody”.
“He is a more laying on his back with his belly getting tickled kind of dog,” she added.
MacFarlane confirmed she had installed wire to block the gaps in the fence since the incident.
In her summation of the case, Mrs Ralph told Sheriff Matheson: “Her dog bit the postie.”
“The mere fact that it bit [him] suggests that it was dangerously out of control.”
‘The dog has not done anything before or since’
Solicitor John MacColl, for MacFarlane, said: “The dog was not dangerously out of control,” and suggested: “There was no prior knowledge that the dog was going to do anything.”
But Sheriff Matheson told MacFarlane: “I find you guilty of this charge.”
The sheriff noted the dog’s “failure to follow commands “and MacFarlane’s habit of putting Diego in a car suggested it was “necessary to control it.”
John MacColl told the sheriff: “The dog has not done anything before and not done anything since.”
Sheriff Matheson deferred sentencing to give consideration to a dog control order and get a report from the dog control team.
The case will call again next month and MacFarlane, of Balmacaan Road, Drumnadrochit, was ordained to appear at the next hearing.