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Dog mauling sends Edmonton woman to hospital

Dog mauling sends Edmonton woman to hospital

A 51-year old Edmonton woman is in hospital for non-life threatening injuries after being mauled by two dogs in north Edmonton.

Emergency officials were called to the scene near 58th Street and 162nd Avenue shortly before 10 a.m. Thursday.

The victim was transported to a hospital emergency room with bite wounds, police said.

Sam Fyith was sitting in his living room when he heard the woman's screams.

"We came outside and we saw these two dogs attacking this older lady," said Fyith. "She was backing up and they were jumping at her, biting, and at that point they knocked her over."

Fyith said he ran across the street to help, and managed to fend off the two animals.

"Once I got the dogs' attention, they left her be and they turned on me. And I backed up into the middle of the street, stomped my feet a few times and yelled and managed to not have them attack me."

'She was bleeding pretty bad'

As the dogs ran off, Fyith helped the woman over to his property, where he administered first aid and called 911.

"She was bleeding pretty bad," Fyith said.

Animal Control Services were also called to the scene in the Hollick-Kenyon neighbourhood.

"We were contacted by fire (services) to come and support them," said Keith Scott, the city's animal control co-ordinator.

"The two dogs were still at large and were being aggressive toward the firefighters. So we had officers go in and they were able to capture the two dogs."

Scott said it's unclear if the two black Labrador retrievers involved in the attack had a history of aggression.

The dogs will remain in the care of animal control officers for up to 21 days.

"That allows us to go through our investigation and gather all the evidence that we need in order to make a recommendation and proceed," Scott said.

"The public shouldn't be concerned with these two dogs, they are in our custody and we're doing everything we need to ensure the dogs aren't a risk to the public."

The attack could result in fines for the owners, new restrictions, or in the most extreme cases the dogs could be seized or destroyed.

Scott said the city responds to about 400 dog attack complaints in the typical year.

"Those can be anything from a minor chase to a minor bite to something more serious.

"It is quite a few calls that we go through every years and we want to make sure that we're educating the public on being responsible owners, that they have control of their dogs at all times and they're not putting themselves in situations that will create dog attacks.

"We would certainly like to see that number go down."