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Woman seeks owner of dog that attacked her pet

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Stitches were needed to close up Heidi’s wound after being attacked by another dog.

A Campbell River woman is seeking the owner of a 50-60 pound “pit bull-like” dog that attacked her seven-year-old, 18-pound American Eskimo dog on Nov. 23.

It was around 10:45 a.m. that day when Adel Elias, her dog Heidi and a friend and her friend’s six-month-old puppy were walking up the Millennium Trail hill.

“We were about 60 – 100 feet from a bend in the trail when two dogs appeared coming down around the bend in the trail,” Elias said in a report to the animal control office. “As soon as I saw them, I put my dog on a sit and bent down to leash her. Before, I could attach the leash a tannish or tawny pit bull-appearing dog had raced up to us and grabbed her by the neck.

“I think, I said something to the owner but I don’t remember exactly what. The owner of pit bull ran up to it and grabbed it.”

Elias’ memory of the incident is incomplete but she says, “I think she told me to leave her dog alone as I was trying to pry its teeth open. I told her he was going to kill my dog.”

Elias said she had to fend off another, smaller dog and took it to the owner before returning to the attacking dog.

“My friend did not want me to go back to my dog because she was afraid I would be attacked.,” Elias said.

Elias stayed away briefly but then to her dog who, by this time, was not moving. She tried to pry the pit bull’s mouth.

“I felt the pit-bull roll at least once and perhaps twice, like a crocodile with its prey, my dog, in its mouth,” Elias says. “I did not see how my dog could survive this assault.”

Elias remembered a scene from the Dog Whisperer television show and took the attacking dog by its hind legs, picking them up and flipping them over its head, freeing her dog. She picked Heidi up and walked away leaving the other woman sitting on the ground with her dog.

“I do not know what became of her after this,” Elias says.

It was a 15-20-minute walk to return to our vehicles.

“My dog’s head, chest and feet were saturated with blood,” she says. “She was completely limp in my arms, but she was still able to walk a short distance when she became too heavy for me to carry.”

The other dog appears to have grabbed her by the neck on both sides under her ears. At the vet, she was given sedation and 10 or more stitches to close the tears in her skin. Her left eye also appears to have sustained damage but not enough to have caused serious damage at this point. There were also tooth bruises just above an artery that the vet said she would have treated differently except for the location.

The vet said this could easily have been a different outcome for Elias’ dog, considering the location and severity of the bite.

If the owner of the attacking dog or anyone has any information about this dog, Elias asks them to call the Campbell River Animal Control Bylaw Enforcement at 1-888-754-1397.