Winnipeg woman shocked after dog run over and killed in hit-and-run

A Winnipeg woman says she was shocked and left devastated after one of her beloved pet pugs was killed by a hit-and-run driver while they were on a walk in the Norwood Flats neighbourhood last week.

Donna Dixon and a friend took her two pugs, Milo and Mimi, for a short walk along a pathway that runs along Lyndale Drive, near her home, last Friday. The pair were just about back home and had moved from the pathway onto the street to avoid an icy patch on the walkway when an SUV came from behind.

Dixon says she hadn't heard the vehicle coming and couldn't believe what happened next.

"All of a sudden I just heard this terrible bang, just a loud bang, and before I could turn around then a lighter bang on my upper left arm," she said."Then I saw a white SUV just keep on driving on — I was just totally shocked." 

That's when she noticed Mimi had been hit.

"She was lying motionless on the road right by the curb and just a large pool of blood came out of her mouth and her little eyes were open," Dixon said. "I just called out her name and she wagged her tail one last time, just quickly, and then stopped and then she was just absolutely still.

"Even her little tongue was hanging motionless out of her mouth."

'He just drove off'

Dixon said it looked to her like the SUV was going to keep driving away so she called out to the driver, who eventually stopped a little way down the road and got out of his vehicle.

"I was just crying and yelling and I said 'you hit my dog' and all he said, he was just standing there and looking towards us, and said 'so you're alright then?'" recalled Dixon. "I yelled and said no, we need to get our dog to the vet right away. He just paused and then said 'I didn't see you' and then just got back into his car… and then he just drove off."

Dixon and her husband rushed Mimi to an emergency veterinarian's office but it was too late.

Dixon was also grazed by the SUV, but other than bruise on her shoulder, she says she wasn't seriously hurt.

She said her other dog, Milo, had a deep graze down to the bone on one of his legs, but is otherwise OK. But he hasn't been the same since the accident, she says. 

"He was very quiet and subdued, not at all himself over the weekend," said Dixon, who said the two dogs were very close and used to cuddle together. "They were inseparable."

Worried for others 

The accident happened around 5:45 p.m. and while the streetlights were on, Dixon says it was still bright enough to see.

She acknowledges she and her friend were walking in the street at the time, but says the street is very wide and the pair were walking single-file, right next to the curb, with the dogs pulled in close on their leashes.

"People run and walk on this avenue all the time, both day and night, so I did feel it was reasonable and we were safe," she said, adding her and her friend both had brightly coloured jackets on at the time.

Dixon has filed a police complaint and has asked members of the Norwood Flats Facebook group to keep an eye out for the driver.

She's worried he shouldn't be on the road.

"I'm wondering if he safe to drive," she said. "I wonder if he just didn't see well in low vision — maybe he was distracted."

"That's the point of this, is just as a caution or precaution that could save someone else from this happening to them."

Dixon says the man looked to be between 55 and 60 years old and was driving a white or light grey silver SUV.

Anyone with information should call police at 204-786-TIPS.