The mother of a Quebec boy who was mauled by a pit bull-type dog last week says the rules regarding dangerous dogs need to be better applied and enforced.
“If it’s either by law or by forbidding that breed of dog, somebody needs to do something,” Cleothilde Lefebvre-Bergeron said Monday. “But no amount of laws will (matter) if no one is looking for people who are infringing the laws, it’s pointless.”
READ MORE: Quebec won’t go ahead with ban on pit bull-type dogs
She was on her way home from the park with her son Hugo Giroux, 2, when a pit bull bolted toward him, unmuzzled and with no owner in sight in Gatineau’s Aylmer district.
“He went straight to the stroller, it happened so crazy fast,” Lefebvre-Bergeron said.
“I remember my son saying in French ‘a dog!’ and he bit once and I pulled him away and he went at it again, so I pulled (the dog) down and put all my weight on it.”
The dog got away from Lefebvre-Bergeron and Gatineau police later found the animal. They are investigating whether charges should be laid.
READ MORE: Montreal SPCA against Quebec pit bull ban
Lefebvre-Bergeron said the dog bit her son in the face, injuring his upper lip and left cheek.
She said she also learned from police the dog was staying with the owner’s parents.
“It got away, I have no clue how,” she said.
“But there was no one to be seen with the dog, he was completely free in the street.”
The attack comes as Quebec recently adopted tough new rules for dangerous dogs, but left out legislation targeting specific breeds.
Following Montreal’s new administration that also reversed a controversial pit bull ban, the province’s public security minister said there wasn’t enough scientific consensus to warrant targeting specific breeds.
The initial bill was tabled in 2017 following a handful of dog attacks, including the mauling death of a Montreal woman in her own backyard and an attack against a girl just south of the city.
READ MORE: Montreal moves to ban calèches, tightens animal welfare laws
But the province decided that breed-specific rules would be problematic from an identification standpoint, noting that the city of Ottawa doesn’t apply a provincial pit bull ban in Ontario because they say it’s difficult to enforce.
The province did move ahead and pass a bill targeting potentially dangerous dogs. Lefebvre-Bergeron noted that Gatineau has several laws about dangerous dogs on the books, but she has questions about enforcement.
The dog is currently residing with the SPCA in Gatineau area and Le Droit newspaper reports the dog will be evaluated this week to see how dangerous it is.
In the meantime, she said Hugo is recovering.
“My son is doing better, he’s really a trooper,” she said. “He started arguing with his brother again, so that’s a good sign.”
The boy is being followed by doctors at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario to ensure the wounds heal properly, but there will a scar on his upper lip.
His mother’s quick actions saved him as did Hugo himself — his parents suspect he used his left arm to protect himself.
“He could have lost an eye, he could have died,” his mother said.
“He was strapped in, there was not much he could do.”