The service dog of a Canisius student was hit by an unidentified reckless driver on Halloween. Although Tessa is okay and healing, her owner isn’t okay with authorities' lack of investigation.
By: Ava C. Green, Editor-in-Chief
This past Thursday, on Halloween night, Anita Molnar and her two friends were crossing Main Street, headed toward Eastwood Place with Anita’s service dog, Tessa – the corgi you’ve probably seen strutting around campus in sweaters, hats and tutus. At approximately 10:50 p.m. a car sped by the Andrew L. Bouwhuis Library and ran the red light in front of Montante Cultural Center during the group’s right-of-way, hitting Tessa, narrowly avoiding the girls and driving away without hesitation.
On top of the whirlwind of seeing her beloved and necessary companion injured, Anita was sent through a cycle of being told to do one thing, going to do it, and then being told by someone else that she should have done something else. She was shocked at the lack of empathy, clarity and support she felt from law enforcement as she tried to settle the incident.
“I knew we were good – every other car was stopped,” Molnar said. “I always check my surroundings. If I see the countdown start or the light start to change, we speed up and get to the sidewalk as fast as possible, but I didn’t this time because we were all good on time,” she continued. “Well, we were supposed to be good.”
Tessa is an off-leash-trained service dog and is conditioned to stay about a foot in front of Anita when they walk together. Kayla Fawcett, one of Molnar’s friends who was walking with the group when the accident occurred, said she believed that if Tessa was on a leash and any further from the girls than she was, she probably would have been fatally run over by the car’s right tires.
“The leash could have either wrapped around her and suffocated her, or could have wrapped around any part of the car and dragged her along,” said Molnar.
Instead, Tessa got lucky; and due to her size, she went underneath the car, between the two tires, and was struck on the head by the front bumper, leaving the dog with a bloodied eye and a lack of mobility after the shock of the blow.
The girls picked Tessa up from the road and recuperated on the sidewalk in front of Montante, where they called 911. Over the phone, emergency services told Anita to go to campus police for help since the incident occurred on school grounds. Canisius’ campus police then recommended an emergency veterinary office for the girls to take Tessa, to which the girls responded by asking if the officers would be able to bring them. The request was initially denied until Molnar said she repeatedly explained to them that she was too upset to safely drive that night.
“Tessa is a medical device,” said Sergeli Michel, who met up with her friends at Montante right after the accident. “Under really bad stress [Anita’s] heart rate picks up and she can pass out. Her heart rate after was over 180 – almost 200.”
Campus police eventually decided to bring the girls to the animal ER, but explained that they would not be able to transport them back to campus afterward.
“They said they were understaffed – I understand that,” Molnar explained. “But when you're asking somebody who is clearly not in the right state whether they can drive their dog who's just been hit to the hospital by themselves, and when I have to tell you – while I bawl my eyes out multiple times – that I cannot drive right now, before you actually say, ‘Okay, let me talk to someone and see if I can take you,’ that's a problem.”
Molnar and friends were at the animal hospital until 2 a.m. that night, checking on Tessa and filing an incident report.
“She was in an oxygen chamber, very out of it, just still completely in shock. Then, we came back to the dorms. I don't think I slept the entire night,” said Molnar.
Molnar said she wanted to take legal action to help cover Tessa’s medical expenses, to compensate for the mental distress and inability to utilize the services Tessa provides her, as well as to ensure a situation like theirs doesn’t arise again.
“I don't care so much about how much I'm getting from them. My biggest thing is that my dog is safe,” said Molnar. “I want this person to come face-to-face with me so I can ask them, ‘What were you thinking?’ and ‘Why didn’t you stop?’”
One friend added, “Let's say this person continues to be like this – they could end up killing someone. They could have killed any one of us walking across that street. Not holding this person responsible for their actions is probably gonna encourage them further.”
The next morning, she and her friends went to campus police to make sure their report had gone through, but said they would not be able to check until a lieutenant was in the office. So, the girls called the C-District of the Buffalo Police as they waited.
District C also said that since it was an on-campus incident, the report should be filed with campus police. Molnar went back to Canisius police to explain this and was told that she could call the E-District’s non-emergency number. And when she called, she was told to come in and file the report at the E-District office.
The report-filing process at District E was a non-starter though. The girls said they were told they could fill out the form, but that it would not be looked at and there would be no investigation; the report was not filed while they were still on the scene, and therefore, their complaint did not exist in their system.
“[The officer] said, ‘It's just a dog.’ and ‘No one was killed.’ And I know, legally, a dog is considered property, but they would have more empathy if my car was hit,” said Molnar.
Now, Tessa is on bedrest as she heals; and Molnar is still hitting dead ends as she seeks justice for her companion, but expresses deep gratitude for the masses of students and staff reaching out with well wishes for her and Tessa.
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