An Edmonton woman says she was stunned after a man stabbed her dog while she was walking him and now wants to warn other dog owners about what happened.
Shannon Gonsalves says she and her little brother were walking her dog, Kade, in the Meadows area of southeast Edmonton on Monday afternoon. She said the walk ended with Kade being stabbed with a hunting knife.
The trio had just returned from the dog park and decided to take the Labrador retriever mix for a quick walk around the neighbourhood.
“We were on our driveway when his leash slipped off,” Gonsalves said on Tuesday. “He saw another dog, and a man, just across the street.”
Gonsalves said Kade ran over to the dog, looking to play.
“He went into a submissive position, with his butt in the air, his tail wagging and his face on the ground.”
Gonsalves walked over to get Kade and said as she walked over, the man began yelling at her dog.
“Then, his dog freaks out and bites Kade on the nose, which starts to bleed,” she said.
“The man then hits my dog, Kade starts to bark and the next thing I know, he looks me dead in the eye, and he stabs my dog in the side.”
She said the incident was shocking.
Get daily National news
“I couldn’t even believe it happened. I stopped in my tracks,” Gonsalves said. “Kade didn’t even make a yelp. He was wide-eyed and he walked away. He was shocked and I was shocked.”
She said she saw blood on her dog, yelled for her little brother to get inside the house and grabbed Kade.
“When I grabbed him, I looked at [the man] and I said, ‘Did you just stab my dog?'” Gonsalves said. “I thought it couldn’t be real.”
Gonsalves said she then ran back home because she “had no idea what else he was going to do with this knife.”
When she took Kade to the veterinarian, she said she was told Kade was lucky the knife hadn’t gone any deeper.
“He stabbed all the way through the muscle and his abdominal wall. When we took him in, they said they saw fluid in his stomach.”
Gonsalves said the knife that stabbed Kade was a hunting knife.
“But when police went to talk to him, he told them it was a one-inch blade, a little keychain knife,” she said. “When I spoke to officers, I said, ‘That’s not true. I saw it with my own eyes, I was only a few feet away. It was a full-on knife.'”
Gonsalves said the vet agreed with her.
Gonsalves said this isn’t the first encounter she’s had with the man. Last summer, her leashed dog ran up to the edge of her lawn.
“The man didn’t see he was on the leash and he started yelling, ‘Put your dog on a leash, that’s not how this is done in this country,'” Gonsalves said. “Which is also shocking. I’m a Canadian citizen, I was born here.”
Kade is now back at home, recovering. Gonsalves said she has spoken to police but was told because Kade approached the man off-leash, they can’t do anything.
The Edmonton Police Service told Global News it was determined there are no grounds for charges, and police are not looking for a suspect.
Gonsalves said if she can’t press charges, she’d like for other dog owners to be aware of what happened.
“In my mind, I’m like, ‘Why are you even walking with a knife like that in the first place?'” Gonsalves said. “There was intent to use that knife. You don’t know who you’re walking past, what they have, or how they are going to react to your dog.”
Watch below: Some past Global News videos about dogs being stabbed.
Comments