Valley Ridge family mourns dog struck and killed in hit-and-run

After dodging a car that nearly struck him, a man watched in horror as his 12-year-old dog was dragged and killed in the city’s northwest earlier this week.

Ginny, a 12-year-old Yorkie, wasn’t officially a support dog, but the eight-pound dog was loved and cherished by her family.

Brenda Pederson tells CityNews her husband was walking the dog just before 6 p.m. on Tuesday along Valley Ridge Drive.

They had stopped at a four-way stop and waited for all the cars to stop before proceeding.

“It’s a walk we have taken her on hundreds of times,” she says. “He was crossing the intersection. All the cars had stopped. He had looked. He was crossing the street.”

As her husband was about to reach the median, the car accelerated toward him.

She says her husband thought he was going to die, but the vehicle missed him by about a foot, striking Ginny instead.

“It hit our dog and took her and dragged her about 30 or 40 feet, and he could hear her screaming and crying,” she said tearfully.

Pederson, who was on her way back from home, got a call from her husband and made her way there as soon as possible.

But it was too late. About a minute later, Ginny was gone.

“It was pretty heartbreaking,” Pederson recalled.

Meanwhile, she says the young man behind the wheel hit the gas and took off as fast as he could.

“My husband screamed at him as … he was coming towards him and our dog, and even after, screamed at him. But he did not stop,” she said.

Ginny the Yorkie

Pederson says they got Ginny for their daughter when she was 14 as she was going through a difficult time, adding Ginny “brought our daughter a lot of comfort.”

“She slept with our daughter every night until she got married and moved away from home. So for eight years, she slept with our daughter, and she was still going on long walks around the neighbourhood,” she explained.

“[Ginny] was very, very healthy and active. Some days I had trouble keeping up with her.”

Pederson says bringing awareness to the tragedy is vital as “it could have been a child.”

She also says the driver could have been a young, inexperienced driver who “could have been anybody’s son.”

“But they need to know that they need to just stay at the scene of an accident. I really do feel it was an accident,” she said. “But to leave the scene of an accident, that’s a crime. You can’t do that.”

Ginny the Yorkie. (Courtesy of Brenda Pederson)

Pederson and her husband are both shaken up after the incident, adding it’s hard not to have an event like that not replay in his head “over and over.”

However, she adds that the memory of the event will fade and that they will be able to focus on the good memories of Ginny.

“Because she was a quirky, funny, loving little Yorkie … who would howl at me when I came home like she was saying hello,” she recalled.

“She was so happy to see me. I would say, ‘Give me love, Ginny,’ and she would jump up on my lap and give me a lick on the nose.”

Pederson says while Ginny was getting older, it was a significant loss, and they had hoped to spend more time with her.

“She was just a really special little pet. And almost a service dog to my daughter,” she said.

Pederson said that no one imagines this is the way you will lose your pet, adding there was no time to say goodbye.

“We forgive this person who did this, but we really want them to do the right thing and come forward,” she said.

Ginny the Yorkie, left, with the Pederson family. (Courtesy of Brenda Pederson)

Meanwhile, Calgary police are currently investigating the incident.

They say there are two levels of offence in the case of failing to stop at a collision, one of which being criminal charges involving human fatality or serious injuries, and the other are charges under the Traffic Safety Act that involve personal property, like vehicles, fences, buildings, and even pets.

“Animals are classified as property. Think of a cow getting hit by a truck out in a rural area. Somebody owns that cow. So animals are property from that respect,” Sgt Colin Foster with the Calgary Police Service Collision Reconstruction Unit told CityNews.

“If they are injured or killed in a collision, then the driver of that vehicle has to stop and exchange information with the owner of that animal.”

When it comes to this incident, Foster says there is potential for careless driving charges, along with failure to yield to a pedestrian at a crosswalk.

“I don’t know the circumstances of this particular collision other than the fact that the vehicle failed to stop at the scene,” he explained.

“It basically comes down to the fact: if you’re involved in a collision, you are required to stop and exchange names and addresses with any party who may be involved.”

The vehicle is believed to be a blue Suzuki sedan, but officers have not yet verified this with CityNews.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call police at 403-266-1234 or leave a tip anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

-With files from Tate Laycraft