WATCH: Fatal dog attack in Peachland may result in court action

PEACHLAND – One dog is dead, and the lives of two others are in the balance, after an unprovoked canine attack incident in Peachland.

Jeff Clarke was taking his leashed dog for a walk along his residential street on New Year’s Day when Charlie, a Lhasa Apso cross, was attacked by two larger dogs that were running loose.

“It was awful. It was brutal. The big guy bit Charlie on the side. I just hauled off and booted him in the head. It was like booting a medicine ball. Big, big head on him,” says Clarke.

He broke one hand and suffered abrasions to his other from punching the two attacking dogs.

“In the head, in the ear, in the eye, in the nose. It didn’t faze them.”

The two dogs ran off when Clarke threw his body on top of Charlie who was rushed to a veterinarian.

“He had numerous, superficial wounds. Bite wounds. And a deep wound in the abdomen and chest. The biggest was a perforated lung,” says Dr. Moshe Oz of Rose Valley Veterinary Hospital.

The decision was made to put Charlie down.

“It’s a big surgery. Most likely he would have not survived the anesthetic. He was in shock,” says Oz.

The two attack dogs were found at a nearby house and seized by Animal Control authorities who have three weeks to determine what to do.

“It could be that the owner would voluntarily agree to have the dogs put down. We could seek a consent order through court approval which would put strict conditions on the owner,” says Animal Control spokesperson Bruce Smith.

He adds another option is to seek a destruction order from the courts.

That’s what Jeff Clarke would like to have done.

“I saw what those two dogs did to my dog and they shouldn’t be able to walk the face of the earth. I’m a compassionate dog owner, or was, but I’ve got no time for that stuff.”

One of the dogs which attacked Charlie is a Pit Bull-cross. The other is a Presa Canario. Both are powerful breeds known to be aggressive to other dogs.