'Screaming for help': Saskatoon man injured saving family from dog attack

An evening stroll for a Saskatoon man and his three children quickly turned violent, when two Pit bull dogs aggressively approached and attacked them on Wednesday in the Holiday Park neighbourhood.

“They must have came out from behind a car or something because suddenly they were right in front of us. Immediately it was pretty apparent that they weren’t happy to see us,” the man, who wished to have his identity concealed, said.

He said the dogs were growling and seemed agitated. His first thought was to protect his children.

“I was pushing my son’s stroller so immediately I put it behind me and got out in front,” he said.

His son is only one-year-old, and his daughters are eight and 14-years-old.

“One of them got a hold of me pretty good and they were able to drag me onto the ground and knock me over and I fell backwards, I knocked my son’s stroller over and knocked him out of the stroller,” he said.

He said his oldest daughter swooped in to help her brother.

“The entire time this was happening, I was basically just screaming for help,” he said.

That’s when a man from a nearby house stepped in.

“He must have recognized something was going on and he came out with a broom, and tried to fend them off,” he said.

• Download the CTV News app for breaking news alerts on your device

He said while the man distracted the dogs, he got his children to run away and then he climbed on the roof of a car. The dog started biting the second man until he went back into his home.

Paramedics arrived on scene and took him to hospital.

“I’ve got stitches on the back of my leg and about four or five stiches on my forearm,” he said.

Meanwhile police and animal control searched the area and learned the dogs were missing from a home on Avenue N South.

The dogs were found in a yard about a block away from where the attack took place.

The owner eventually arrived and took the animals. The Saskatoon Animal Control Agency said it’s investigating the attack.

The man said his family is traumatized from the situation and reminds pet owners to keep safety top of mind.

“There’s a huge responsibility on people who own larger breed dogs to make sure that they’re well adjusted to people and other animals so they don’t do this,” he said.