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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Alberta woman denied bail in pit-bull attack
CALGARY -- A Calgary judge has denied bail to a central Alberta woman charged in a vicious dog attack earlier this month.
Rita Phillip, 57, wasn't able to attend her first scheduled court appearance Monday because she was taken to hospital from the Calgary Remand Centre.
She was in visible pain and grimaced as she sat down in the prisoner's dock Wednesday before asking the court bailiff for a glass of water.
Phillip is charged with aggravated assault relating to the attack at a trailer park in Sundre earlier this month. She is accused of ordering her two pit bull-type dogs to attack a 26-year-old Calgary woman who was visiting her.
A publication ban was placed on all evidence heard during Wednesday's bail hearing.
Provincial court Judge Cheryl Daniel ordered Phillip to remain in custody until her next court appearance in Didsbury, Alta., on Sept. 10.
Phillip sat hunched over in the prisoner's box looking at the floor throughout the bail hearing.
Her only comment was to reply "Yes ma'am" when asked by the judge if she understood the proceedings.
RCMP responded to an early morning 911 call from a home at the Sundre Mobile Estates Park on Aug. 18.
The young woman who was victim of the attack was so badly mauled that emergency personnel thought she was dead.
Responders found her lying unconscious behind a closed bedroom door in a pool of blood.
She was a friend of Phillip's and had been visiting her when she was mauled.
She remains in hospital in stable condition.
The victim suffered life-threatening wounds to her arms and face and is believed to have lost an ear. The young woman has already had several surgeries.
Police found the two dogs in another room of the trailer, throwing themselves at the door trying to get out.
One of the animals was successfully sedated with the help of a veterinarian, but the other remained awake and charged officers when the door was opened.
It was shot.
The other dog remains in quarantine and its fate has yet to be determined.
Phillip, who police say left the home immediately after the attack, was arrested by police at a Calgary casino last Thursday.
The dogs involved in the attack had come to the attention of officials before.
Sundre town officials declared the two dogs vicious last year following an attack on another dog at the same trailer park.
They had to be muzzled and on short leashes when out in public and confined to a pen when in their yard.
-- The Canadian Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 30, 2012 A9
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