PRINCE GEORGE – A Prince George father and his nine-year-old daughter are recovering in hospital after getting attacked by a dog they adopted six weeks ago.
The young girl was allegedly in the yard of the family’s rural residence with the dog, described as a 170-pound St. Bernard, when the attack happened Monday night.
Her 39-year-old father heard the screams and rushed to help, which was when the dog turned on him, but the two managed to make it back into the house.
When police arrived, the dog was covered in blood. It approached police cruisers with what the RCMP call “a high level of aggression.”
Police say they determined the father was losing lots of blood and was likely going into shock. When they tried getting into the house, they were again met with aggression from the dog, forcing them to put the animal down.
Both the nine-year-old and her father suffered numerous deep bite wounds to predominantly their legs and arms and were taken to hospital for treatment.
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Cpl. Craig Douglass with Prince George RCMP says there were no previous violence incidents involving the dog in the six weeks that the animal lived with the family, although they did report a little bit of aggression.
Manager of Prince George SPCA Angela McLaren says the dog did not come from their shelter.
She says regardless, pending more information from the RCMP, they will be making a decision on whether to launch their own investigation into the incident.
But Douglass says the RCMP investigation is complete.
“The fundamental thing was that the dog was not able to hurt anybody else, and the safety of these two was preserved. Once that public safety concern was alleviated, our involvement was no longer needed.”
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