Owner found guilty in barbaric death of German shepherd Dakota

Content Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions and images of alleged animal abuse that some readers may find disturbing.

Animal advocates demanding “justice for Dakota” welcomed the decision of Justice Krista Whittard on April 27. She found Carly Young guilty of four provincial offence charges in connection to the death of her 1-year-old German shepherd Dakota in 2024.

Dakota’s death, described as “entirely preventable” by Crown Attorney Hillary Lowry, was the result of a muzzle that clamped her mouth shut on a 31-degree day in July, triggering a fatal heat stroke after the dog broke free of her tether and ran off down the street with metal polls dragging behind her.

The Pointer previously reported how Niagara Police, and local bylaw officials were well aware of the issues Dakota faced inside the Young’s small apartment which was infested with cockroaches. She was rarely let outside and was locked in a bathroom for long stretches when she would bark and cry. The prior treatment was not part of the provincial offenses trial.

In a separate process, Niagara Police launched a criminal investigation into Dakota’s death in March. It is ongoing. 

Taking place between September 2025 and April—the provincial offence case was delayed multiple times due to Carly’s failure to show up in court—the court heard the muzzle was placed on Dakota by Chris Young, Carly’s husband, to prevent the dog from barking. Chris assisted his wife during the trial; he was not facing any charges in connection to Dakota’s death. 

On July 30, 2024, the pair was moving to a new home. Carly was outside the house with Dakota and one of the couple’s other dogs when Dakota was spooked by a cable installer. She broke free from the glass table she was tethered to, smashing it in the process, and took off down the street. 

Dakota’s run through a Niagara Falls suburb, dragging the metal legs of the broken table behind her, was captured in a cell phone video and uploaded to a local Facebook page for lost pets. It enraged the group which is populated with dedicated animal rights advocates.

Dakota running down the street in Niagara Falls, dragging the broken metal legs of a table behind her.

(Submitted)

An eye witness who was the first to come across Dakota collapsed on the sidewalk previously told The Pointer the young German shepherd was bloodied and gasping for breath.

“She just had so much blood on her. She had what looked like a bubble of plastic in her mouth, and then like hard plastic melted on the muzzle, it looked like to me,” Melynda Banks recalled to The Pointer. 

Carly and Chris attempted to put forward a different narrative of events during trial. 

She said the couple loved Dakota very much, and when Dakota got scared and ran off, the muzzle was loose. She testified the couple spent hours trying to locate Dakota, but was unsuccessful. A call from the local SPCA informed them Dakota had been found deceased. 

They claimed someone else must have stopped Dakota while she was running, placed the plastic bag in her mouth, and then tightened the muzzle. 

“Her muzzle had gotten tighter and there was a white bag in her mouth,” Carly said during her brief testimony on Monday. “A white bag of food.”

The existence of the obstruction in Dakota’s mouth remains uncertain. Despite Carly and Chris acknowledging the bag, eye witnesses seeing something in Dakota’s mouth and a white object visible in photographs, it was not identified by AWS or the veterinary pathologist, Dr. Ian Welch, who examined Dakota after her death. Welch concluded it was a heat stroke that killed Dakota. 

“He also ruled out other causes of deaths such as blunt-force trauma from being hit by a car, as well as asphyxiation on a foreign object such as a plastic bag, since there was none located in the muzzle once it was removed and none in her throat or mouth as he examined her,” Lowry said in her closing statements. “The muzzle was fitted too tightly for a foreign object to enter.” 

She continued: “It’s not reasonable to believe based on the photos of the muzzle that Dakota tightened the muzzle to the point of asphyxiation on her own or that an unknown third person would have tightened the muzzle to cause further distress.” 

Dakota collapsed on the side of a Niagara Falls roadway in 2024. A tight muzzle kept her from panting and cooling off on the incredibly hot day. She died of a fatal heat stroke. A white object, identified as a “white bag of food” at trial, is clearly visible clamped in the dog’s mouth.

(Submitted) 

Justice Whittard agreed, dismissing the Youngs’ version of events, siding with the Crown’s case that any reasonable person would have known the type of muzzle placed on Dakota would have fatal consequences on a hot summer day. The muzzle was not a typical cage or “basket” muzzle, which still allows the dog to breathe through its mouth and pant. Instead, a groomer’s muzzle that completely closes the mouth to prevent biting—but only meant to be used for a brief period of time—was placed on Dakota that day. The couple admitted during trial the muzzle was often placed on Dakota to keep her from barking or nipping at people. 

Dr. Welch testified that Dakota’s death would have been similar to a human suffocating with a plastic bag placed over their head. 

“This dog did experience a significant amount of distress and I think it's reasonable to believe that any reasonable person would understand that a tight muzzle on a hot day is an extremely bad idea and presents a high risk of death to a dog,” Welch said. “If you replayed that scenario in a dog without a muzzle, I think it’s very hard to imagine the dog falling over and paddling and seizuring if it was able to ventilate properly.”

Welch explained how the muzzle was so tight it was cutting off blood flow to Dakota’s snout. When it was removed there were indentations left behind on her nose where it was clamped tight. 

“There is no reasonable doubt about what happened to Dakota,” Lowry said. “The defendant had a duty to provide Dakota with the necessities of life and safety and this duty of care was failed.” 

Carly will be sentenced on July 17. 

Requests for comment sent to Chris, who assisted Carly in the case, were not returned. 

The Crown is seeking six months in jail along with a $25,000 fine and a lifetime ban on owning animals. 

Lowry referred to the “extreme” distress Dakota was subjected to, the fact that the dog’s death was preventable and the couple’s “little cooperation” during the court process as factors to be considered in the sentence. 

Chris argued that a $6,000 fine and probation would be more appropriate for Carly as this was her first offence. 

Justice Whittard has ordered a pre-sentencing report to be completed ahead of the July date to inform her decision. The report will provide the Justice with information on Carly’s background, personal history and other circumstances that could be relevant when considering the appropriate sentence.

While the guilty verdict was welcomed by animal rights advocates, some were troubled that the sentencing recommendation remained at the low-end of the spectrum allowed by the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act. For the offenses Carly has now been found guilty of, the Crown could seek a $130,000 fine, and up to two years in jail.

Others are waiting anxiously for the results of the criminal investigation into Dakota’s death. 

Donna Power, the co-founder of the Humane Initiative says it should have been a criminal investigation from the very beginning, and points to a much larger problem with the connection between the provincial Animal Welfare Service (AWS) and local police agencies. 

“Overall, Humane Initiative is dismayed that Provincial Animal Welfare Services chose not to reach out to Niagara Regional Police to ask them to look over the evidence gathered to determine if the extent of the injuries and suffering inflicted met a criminal threshold. Based on the necropsy findings, Dakota suffered extreme distress and suffered immeasurably as she suffocated and then succumbed,” Power told The Pointer. “Ontario’s animal welfare legislation, enforcement, and justice approach once again proves the humane treatment of animals is not important to this government.”

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