WATCH: Nanaimo RCMP are investigating after a pitbull attack left a 10-year-old girl with serious injuries and two others hurt. It happened south of Nanaimo in the front yard of a family home. Kendall Hanson has the story.
A ten-year-old girl is recovering from deep bite wounds in her arm after being viciously mauled by two pit bulls on Saturday.
It happened on Ranchview Drive in Cinnabar Valley, near Nanaimo.
Her father who doesn’t want the girl identified is still in shock about what happened.
“It could’ve been so much worse and we’re just extremely lucky that it wasn’t,” said Dave Skarbo, the girl’s father.
The Grade 5 student was in her friend’s front yard with two other kids when two pit bulls suddenly ran into the yard and attacked the children.
“I had a hockey stick in my hands and I tried to hit the dogs,” said Jayden Tourney, who helped his sister escape.
“The dogs just came running down and jumped on us and starting attacking us and I ran up to the door and my brother ran up to the door with me,” said Natasha Torney.
“My friend ran towards the road and she got pulled down to the ground and attacked.”
A neighbour tried to get the dogs off the girl.
The dogs then turned on another woman, biting her in the arm.
She required multiple stitches to close the wounds.
One of the dog’s owners showed up and got the animals into his vehicle and took them away.
Police and Animal Control Services later impounded the dogs. But it wasn’t the first time they had been called.
“I’m angry that the police and animal control were aware of this owner, were aware of the dogs,” said Cathy Torney, mother to two of the children.
“There have been many complaints. There have been other incidents and still their hands were tied until something like this happened.”
The owner admits they had been ticketed for the dogs being at large the day before the incident, but she says the eight-month-old pit bulls have been good family pets
“I’d love to send my condolences,” said Barbara Andrews, the dog’s owner. “Go see the child [and] do something right like that’s the kind of person I am.”
But the victim’s parents wonder why the dog’s owner didn’t stick around after the attack.
“There were other kids that witnessed this and they’re smaller than she is,” said Skarbo.
“If they had grabbed her arm or one of those other kids arms, they might not have an arm.”
The parents say it may be time for a ban on pit bulls.
Meanwhile, a little girl is trying to recover from some very big injuries.
Kendall Hanson
