Police dog Quanto’s killer jailed but Ottawa still hasn’t tabled ‘Quanto’s Law’

The man who stabbed Quanto to death last fall is going to prison but the promised federal law, named after the Edmonton police dog he killed and aimed at protecting law-enforcement animals, has yet to break cover.

The question is, why the delay?

Paul Joseph Vukmanich was handed a 26-month prison term on Friday. He had pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and other offences related to his flight from police and deadly encounter with Quanto.

Vukmanich, 27, was high on methamphetamine and cocaine and driving a car with stolen licence plates last October when police caught up with him, The Canadian Press reported.

He bailed out of the car after destroying the tires in the chase. Quanto, a five-year-old German shepherd, was sent to chase him down, the court heard. When the dog clamped onto his arm, Vukmanich stabbed Quanto several times in the chest. The dog bled to death despite emergency treatment from a veterinarian.

Judge Larry Anderson accepted the joint sentencing recommendation of Crown and defence lawyers, remarking he wanted to give Vukmanich more than 30 months but decided the recommendation was not far out of line, the Edmonton Sun reported.

[ Related: Quanto's law brings closure after police dog's death, say police ]

The judge said of the sentence that 18 months were specifically tied to Quanto's killing. He also refused to credit Vukmanich with almost five months spent in pre-trial custody, noting he was jailed because his parole for a previous offence had been revoked, the Sun said.

"Mr. Vukmanich, your attack on this dog wasn't just an attack on a dog. It was an attack on your society and what is meaningful in our society," Anderson said, according to the Sun.

Crown prosecutor Christian Lim told reporters afterward he believed the sentence sets a precedent when it comes to cruelty involving police dogs.

The Crown also sought $40,000 in restitution from Vukmanich for the loss of a trained police service dog, but Anderson said the application looked more like a civil matter.

Quanto was the fifth Edmonton police dog killed in the line of duty, CP said.

The Canadian Police Canine Association website's list of dogs who died on the job stretches back to 1965. The surviving suspects didn't have to answer specifically for the dogs' deaths in any of those cases.

When Quanto was killed, Parliament was already considering a private member's bill proposed by Ontario Conservative MP Costas Menegakis. The bill calls for a Criminal Code amendment targeting anyone who injures or kills a law-enforcement animal – a dog or horse, CP reported in October. The five-year maximum jail sentence handed down for such an offence would be the same as for animal cruelty.

“This takes this particular penalty and puts it in the Criminal Code under the police and peacekeeping officers section so it kind of forces the judicial system to apply the law in every case where a service animal is maliciously attacked,” Menegakis said.

But the Conservative government's promise in the October throne speech to introduce its own Criminal Code amendment, dubbed "Quanto's Law" pre-empted Menegakis's bill. But so far it hasn't been tabled.

Justice Minister Peter MacKay, who happened to be in Calgary giving a speech when Vukmanich was sentenced in Edmonton, renewed the pledge.

"They deserve special protection and recognition under the law and it's our intention to do just that and bring in provisions that will recognize service animals," he said, according to CP.

[ Related: Vancouver police dog injured in scissor attack ]

But five months after Quanto's death and the throne speech, MacKay couldn't say when the legislation would see the light of day.

"We're sitting in a Parliament now that is extremely busy and is seized with a lot of justice bills," he said, according to CP.

"I'm not trying to avoid giving you a specific answer as to when the law will be coming ... [but] we have legislation in the queue."

For Quanto's handler, Const. Matt Williamson, who raced his dying partner to the vet, the loss remains profound. In his victim-impact statement at Vukmanich's sentence hearing, Williamson said Quanto was not just his protector but also a part of his family, and his death deeply affected them.

His six-year-old daughter, crying, asked: "If Quanto's job was to protect you from bad guys ... is a bad guy going to kill you?"

She now never lets him leave for work without giving him a hug, he said.