{"id":38455,"date":"2026-07-02T12:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38455"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:43:08","slug":"heiniu-investigators-continue-to-seek-witnesses-as-review-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/heiniu-investigators-continue-to-seek-witnesses-as-review-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Heiniu investigators continue to seek witnesses as review continues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Investigators looking into the circumstances that led to the death of Heiniu, an East Gwillimbury rottweiler, during an Animal Control call involving Aurora officers, continue to seek witnesses to aid in the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council received an update on the investigation at last week\u2019s meeting amid a demonstration held outside Town Hall on June 23 calling for \u201cjustice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Town of Aurora has retained Canine Foundations to investigate the dog\u2019s death, a move defended by municipal staff amid concerns raised by Heiniu\u2019s family and supporters questioning whether their investigation would be concluded in an impartial manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voicing these concerns at last week\u2019s meeting was Bailey Lester, who was an eye-witness to the May 4 incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe friendly family rottweiler was killed at the end of two catch poles by two of Aurora\u2019s animal control officers in my family home\u2019s driveway,\u201d said Lester. \u201cLooking back on May 4, I was coming to visit my mom with my daughter as we planned to go for an evening stroll and to get ice cream. Two stray dogs had wandered onto her property, and my mom had them secured and leashed at the time of my arrival. I had asked my sister to care for my daughter as I went to assist my mom with both dogs. Both dogs were calm, friendly, and exhibited zero aggression towards us. We could pet them and have them sitting close to us without hesitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI called Aurora Animal Services, fully believing in my heart that I was doing the right thing. I am now trying to forgive myself for making this tragic decision. I trusted that those responding would be professional, fully trained, and knowledgeable in how to use any equipment, including catch poles. I fully expected them to handle the dogs in a humane manner, and then safely have them reunited with their families. What was to occur and to be witnessed by my family and neighbors was a nightmare, something that I would never wish on anyone to experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident, she said, has \u201cforever changed us, leaving us deeply shaken, confused, and traumatised.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth my mother and I are in therapy learning how to deal with what we witnessed and dealing with our own feelings of guilt that we have contributed to Heiniu\u2019s death by trusting people that have no business in this field,\u201d she claimed. \u201cThe killing of Heiniu has galvanized many here and beyond. The entire situation, from start until now, has been so badly and coldly handled by the management of Aurora. Trying to make Heiniu the guilty party in this scenario in order to protect yourselves has left not just me, but most of the individuals disgusted and saddened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retention of Canine Foundations, she contended, is problematic because investigators \u201care peers of Aurora Animal Control Services\u201d and would not be able to be impartial, she said, as their use of the Dog Owner\u2019s Liability Act (DOLA) in prior investigations \u201chas been criticized of unfairly punishing dogs when zero aggression has been proven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Town of Aurora management has continued to be vague and non-transparent, using \u2018allow due process\u2019 as the excuse, but the continued detachment is only deepening the feelings of anger and distrust,\u201d she concluded. \u201cThe anger and outrage from people is palpable. This is only growing as we look for justice for Heiniu. I ask this Council and this Town’s management to be courageous and ask the difficult questions internally of hiring and training standards and of your crisis management approach, to listen to what the [constituents] are saying and asking of you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Council members assured her that these voices were being heard, Town Solicitor Patricia De Sario said the selection of Canine Foundations was \u201cthe best option based on their qualifications and expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn our review, they were the only firm, lack of a better word, that included canine behaviour, animal handling, animal cruelty and welfare and animal control,\u201d said De Sario. \u201cGiven the specific nature of the incident, we wanted somebody who was more specific and had these types of expertise and not just a regular third-party investigator. Because they have done considerable work, if Council chooses to redirect with another team, then the Town would still have to pay this team that we’ve retained for all the work they’ve done so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy only other concern is retaining anybody else at this stage is going to take time\u2026. We were asked, not even asked, it was imperative that we chose a firm quickly, which is what we did. If we do anything further, it will delay this process. Like the public, we are trying not to delay the process. We would also like answers quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canine Foundation, she continued, \u201cis committed to providing their report within a reasonable amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey have suggested that they would be able to provide us with a report by the end of July,\u201d she said. \u201cI do want to caution that we still don\u2019t know what this process is looking like. There is potential for litigation; we have been advised of that. As we do in every potential litigation, we may not be able to disclose anything further to the public \u2013 we\u2019ll have to cross that bridge when we get there \u2013 but I can disclose it to Council.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to De Sario\u2019s update, Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese said \u201cpublic disclosure\u201d was of particular interest and it was \u201cimperative\u201d that the public knows what is being done for an independent review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 5 Councillor John Gallo, who put forward a motion to allow Lester to speak as a delegate to last week\u2019s meeting and put forward an ultimately withdrawn motion for a special meeting of Council this month dedicated to the matter, sought assurances that all \u201crelevant witnesses\u201d would be reached as part of the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe investigator has reached out to a couple potential witnesses who would like to get legal advice prior to providing any statements,\u201d De Sario replied, adding a future meeting was \u201calways staff\u2019s intention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe investigation team has also attended the site and are going, for lack of a better word, up and down the street and knocking on doors and seeing if there are any witnesses at home who are willing to speak to them. They have been able to reach at least one person who has provided them with a statement, but they are continuing that process.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Investigators looking into the circumstances that led to the death of Heiniu, an East Gwillimbury rottweiler, during an Animal Control call involving Aurora officers, continue to seek witnesses to aid in the investigation. Council received an update on the investigation at last week\u2019s meeting amid a demonstration held outside Town Hall on June 23 calling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/2026-07-02-07.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-a0f","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 00:54:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38457,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455\/revisions\/38457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}