Five-year-old Saskatoon boy suffers head injury in dog attack
Warning: this story contains a graphic image of an injury.
A Saskatoon couple says they felt ignored by police after their five-year-old foster son was attacked by a dog outside the Meadowgreen Confectionary on March 22.
“He was walking to school with his foster dad and his nine-year-old brother and some guy was in the store and just letting his dog run around the parking lot, and it attacked,” said the boy’s mother, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her son’s identity.
“It almost ripped his whole scalp off the top of his head.”
When the father moved to pry the dog’s jaws open, he says the owner jumped in and tried to wrestle him away from the dog.
A passerby pulled up in a van and offered to take them to the hospital. On the way, they saw the police speaking to the dog owner, he says.
When they pulled over to talk to the police, they were told to wait while they got the dog home, he says. Instead, they drove to the emergency room.
It took over 50 stitches to close the wound on the boy’s scalp, the parents said. The nurse told his father that it was centimetres away from puncturing the skull. Source: Facebook
The mother was upset the police didn’t show more concern for her injured child.
CTV News reached out to the Saskatoon Police Service and they confirmed police responded to a report of a dog attack around 8:40 a.m. on March 22 around Avenue W South and 18th Street West.
Police said they located the dog and its owner, and that officers asked the parent to leave the scene because the dog was becoming aggressive toward them.
“While officers were speaking to the owner, a woman in a vehicle pulled up and began shouting at all parties. She stated that it was that dog that attacked her child before the officers asked her to remove herself from the area as the dog was becoming aggressive towards her.”
The victim’s parent filed a police report, and the incident is now being investigated by Saskatoon animal control, police said.
It took over 50 stitches to close the wound on the boy’s scalp, the parents said. The nurse told his father that it was centimetres away from puncturing the skull.
They say it was irresponsible of the owner to leave the dog outside unrestrained. The boy’s foster mother thinks the dog may have to be euthanized.
“We will be taking them to court if they don’t euthanize them ... he’s going to go after another kid.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.