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10-year-old Nanaimo girl seriously injured in dog attack; father claims dogs’ owners ‘just took off’

Click to play video: 'Nanaimo girl mauled by dogs'
Nanaimo girl mauled by dogs
The father of a 10-year-old girl in Nanaimo says his daughter was attacked by a pair of dogs and suffered serious injuries. Warning: Images may be disturbing to some viewers – May 15, 2018

WARNING: Story contains graphic details and images

A Nanaimo father says his 10-year-old daughter is recovering from serious injuries after being attacked by a pair of off-leash dogs this weekend.

Three kids were sitting on the front lawn of a home on Ranchview Drive on Saturday morning when two dogs charged them.

“My daughter singled herself out, because she went in one direction while the other two kids went in the other direction and the dogs just went after her,” father Dave Skarbo said.

“The one dog jumped onto her back and grabbed her by the head, pulled her to the ground, and the other dog grabbed onto her arm, started thrashing and dragged her out into the street.”

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Neighbours tried to pull the dogs off her, Skarbo said.

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He said the dogs’ owners then “just came and grabbed their dogs and left.”

The dogs were seized by animal control and euthanized, RCMP said.

The girl suffered deep bites on her arm, according to Skarbo.

“There were two doctors that worked for an hour-and-a-half putting in stitches to sew things back together,” he said.

He said his daughter is fortunate there was no tendon or nerve damage, but still has a long recovery ahead of her.

“There’s the physical side of it, but mentally, we just don’t know yet,” he said. “We haven’t had a chance to meet a counsellor. My wife and I and our younger daughter, we saw things that we don’t need to see, that stick with you.

“It’s just a situation you don’t want to ever be in.”

— With files from Kylie Stanton

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