Child seriously injured by pack of dogs on First Nation in northern Manitoba
Posted November 15, 2021 2:19 pm.
Last Updated November 17, 2021 10:07 am.
A seven-year-old girl is in a Winnipeg hospital with severe injuries after she was attacked by a pack of wild dogs in a northern Manitoba community late last week.
Shamattawa First Nations Chief Eric Redhead says the little girl was playing outside when the dogs attacked her.
She suffered serious wounds as a result and was quickly air lifted to Winnipeg to receive medical help and asses the full extent of her injuries.
“And unfortunately she was very, very badly hurt,” said Chief Redhead. “My understanding is she is going to need extensive reconstructive surgery.
“I think we are very fortunate that this child did not die.”
Chief Redhead says this is the worst dog attack the community has ever experienced and it prompted the culling of more than 100 dogs in Shamattawa as an immediate response to keep their children and community members safe.
Redhead says it’s not something he wanted to do but it had to happen. He’s now working with a local animal rescue group to try and deal with the overpopulation of wild dogs.
Katie Powell, founder of Save a Dog Network Canada, says she isn’t passing judgment on anyone in the community for culling the dogs and doing what they felt was necessary to keep people safe given the limited resources the community has to house, foster, or re-locate dogs.
“Our province is in crisis, I really don’t think people understand that,” said Powell.
According to RCMP, the dogs did not belong to anyone and therefore the attack is not considered a crime and no one will be held responsible.
Powell calls it a “Catch 22’ – law enforcement and the province can really only intervene when animals are owned by someone or considered wildlife, and these dogs are technically neither.
“Nobody takes responsibility for stray dogs, because they don’t fall into wildlife because they are domesticated pets, but they are considered strays,” said Powell. “So there is no one else to take responsibility.”
Powell says this near-death tragedy highlights the need to be more proactive instead of reactive to the growing issue of stray dogs in the province. She believes key stakeholders should support grassroots dog rescue operations from the perspective of community safety.
Debbi McArthur, owner of Prairieburn K9 Academy, says all dogs – even your pet poodle – have predatory instincts that can manifest given the right environment and circumstance. She says stray dogs breeding in the wild with little to no human contact could have formed a pack and seen this little girl playing outside as an opportunity to eat.
“What we have to really appreciate is that dogs are semi-domesticated predators,” said McArthur.
“Their wild instinct was to probably to take advantage of a situation and hunt.”
In the meantime, Chief Redhead says he would like connect with veterinarian companies that can spay and neuter a large population of the remaining dogs to avoid further attacks on people or cullings in the future.
“I think that would be the best approach for a long-term solution here.”
The remote community has previously dealt with attacks on children from stray dogs.
In 2013, a six-year-old boy was seriously injured.
—With files from The Canadian Press.
