Two young Gatineau Hills boys have been sent to hospital after being attacked by dogs in two separate instances in as many weeks.
According to an MRC des Collines Police report, a five-year-old boy was bitten in the face by a dog in the Perkins area of Val-des-Monts on the afternoon of May 29 and taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries to his head and leg.
This comes just a week after a six-year-old boy was taken to the hospital after a dog attacked him near Lac Teeples near East Aldfield on the morning of May 23.
The Australian shepherd who attacked the boy in Perkins on May 29 belongs to the boy’s neighbours who were over for a visit.
The dog was put in quarantine under the Société pour la Prévention de la Cruauté faite aux Animaux de l’Outaouais’ care and will be evaluated by a dog behaviour specialist.
Since this was the second similar incident in one week, the Low Down reached out to the municipality of La Pêche’s municipal officer in charge of animal services, Claude Lachaine of Anitek Animal Services, for an update about the dog in the East Aldfield attack.
He said that the doberman was quarantined in his kennel, but he released it to its owners, who live in Ottawa, after it was revealed that the dog was up-to-date with its shots and the municipal lawyer gave him the okay.
“The dog will undergo a professional evaluation from a veterinarian in Montreal. Unfortunately, in the Outaouais, no vet has the specialized training for that,” Lachaine explained.
The dog was released with strict conditions which include: it can’t be alone with a child under the age of 10, it must be muzzled on walks, it must be kept on a leash no more than two metres long during walks, and it must undergo the evaluation. The owners must also prove that they went to the evaluation. Failure to take their dog to that behaviour evaluation will result in a $1,000 per day fine.
“I can recommend euthanasia on the spot, but the courts have the last word,” Lachaine said. “We rarely recommend that these days.”
He said that the most common calls he receives are about aggressive dogs. But aggressive dogs he can handle.
“What’s more alarming than that is the number of owners who think that behaviour is acceptable,” Lachaine said.
Anitek doesn’t supply animal services in Val-des-Monts, which is why that dog went to the SPCA.
“I hope that the child [attacked in Val-des-Monts] is okay,” he said.