A dog that seriously injured a SPCA staff member in Nova Scotia has been euthanized.
“We just didn’t feel comfortable continuing to keep that dog in our care. We didn’t want to risk anybody else being injured,” said Sandra Flemming, SPCA Provincial Director of Animal Care.
“This is not a dog, after that incident, that we would be interested in placing into the public domain again.”
The incident happened on Tuesday evening at the Kings Animal Shelter in Waterville.
According to the association, the 25-year-old woman was taking an American bulldog mix out for a walk when it attacked — biting and holding onto her right arm.
“In the evenings, that last thing that we do is take all of our animals our for their last walk of the evening and unfortunately that’s when this incident occurred, when she had brought it outside,” said Flemming.
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RCMP confirm they were called to the shelter shortly after 7 p.m. and helped to capture the dog along with Animal Control.
“With an investigation such as this, involving an animal and given that it occurred at a workplace, Department of Labour were called and they will conduct their investigation,” said RCMP Cpl. Dal Hutchinson.
“At this stage, our investigation is concluded.”
The woman is being treated for what RCMP describe as “serious, non-life-threatening injuries.”
Flemming says the woman has serious injuries to her arm and will require surgery.
“She’s a trooper. She’s doing really well and we’re looking forward to her coming back to us when she’s feeling better,” she said.
The SPCA says the dog was surrendered by its owner previously but had showed no signs of aggression prior to the incident.
“It was an owner-surrendered dog that was surrendered to us as a friendly dog,” said Flemming. “Dogs of different breeds all can have unsafe temperaments and really it’s evaluating them individually and making sure we’re putting safe dogs in the community.”
The Nova Scotia SPCA handles 6,000 animals each year across the province.
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Flemming has been with the organization for a decade and says this is the first time anything like this has happened.
“This is the most significant incident we’ve had at any of shelters,” she said.
“Not to downplay the severity of the injury to one of our staff, because we are very concerned for her and our heart goes out to her, but I want people to understand these unprovoked attacks are not something that’s very common.”
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