‘I thought I was going to die’: Child attacked by dog in Sicamous

“(My friend and I) were playing on the trampoline, and then after that, we went to go play fetch and then I went to go pick up the ball and (the dog) attacked me,” Brody said of an April 3 attack.

“My friend tried yelling at (the dog) and tried pulling it off…. I thought I was going to die.”

The 10-year-old was at his classmate’s house in Sicamous, B.C., when the family’s husky Akita cross repeatedly bit him in what his mom Krysta Lachowski describes as a mauling.

She said the doctor’s report said there were 20 stitches overall — something that does not always happen.

“They usually don’t stitch dog wounds because of infection, but, because there were tears, not just puncture wounds, they had to stitch it together slightly just so they could hold everything in,” she said.

It’s a horrifying attack that Krysta is struggling to wrap her mind around, particularly in light of the fatal attack of an Osoyoos boy in Edmonton.

“I just couldn’t believe he went through this,” Krysta said.

“He’s always been around dogs. He loves dogs. We’ve had dogs. We had a pet resort,” she said.

“I wanted to know what caused it and when I talked to the parents, they told me that the dog must mistaken his arm for a ball. And I was thinking, ‘OK, maybe one bite,’ but not like this.”

Krysta reported the attack to bylaw officers, the SPCA and the RCMP in the immediate aftermath and believes that the dog should be euthanized.

“I was told by the owners the dog hasn’t bitten before, and the dog’s not aggressive,” she said.

But she has her doubts, fuelled in large part by the ferocity of the attack.

Bylaw and RCMP have not had another report about the dog, but it now has one very violent attack on its record. Krysta is concerned that the checks and balances will be in place to ensure future safety, particularly because that will be decided in large part by a self-inspection.

The dog has to be observed for the next 10 days at the property by the owners.

“The dog should go to a facility to get observed by a professional because these people aren’t professionals,” she said.

“I told the medical and the health inspector, ‘That’s not good enough.’ So they did reach back to me.”

They told her the bylaw officer will be visiting two to three times a week for the next 10 days to observe the dog’s behavior and then the medical examiner is supposed to go to the house to make sure the dog won’t get out and attack anyone else.

The dog has also been deemed an aggressive dog, so a sign warning others has been posted.

John Moore, Sicamous’s lone bylaw officer, said they learned of the April 3 attack from RCMP and promptly began an investigation, which is ongoing.

“We will meet with the victim and family, interview the owners, meet the dog and spend a little bit of time with the dog to determine its general behavior,” Moore said.

They will be researching whether there have been any previous complaints either within the district or outside of the district, and that will determine whether it is a consistent pattern or a chance incident.

Moore understands there are concerns about the self-evaluation process but said that Sicamous simply doesn’t have the capacity to take over the process.

“(It) does not have the equipment or the facilities to house animals so we leave them with the owners during this observation period,” Moore said.

“I do go by on a regular basis to observe myself and spend time with the animal. This is to check for any signs or symptoms of rabies virus.”

The latter is a mandate more by the health authority than the district.

Moore said there’s no way to determine how long the investigation will last, but the district is taking its time to make the right determination.