CANADA - It just about stopped Terry Stewart's heart Tuesday night when his daughter called, frantically explaining a pair of Akitas had just mauled her and her boyfriend in central Alberta.
Nothing seemed out of the ordinary earlier around 10 p.m. when his daughter, 28, and her boyfriend, 27, and her beagle cut through the garage to get to his suite, near Didsbury, Alta., passing a female Akita, her mate and their puppies.
"They'd been there many times. My daughter had been there many times and her dog had been there many times ... it wasn't like they were strangers.
"They played with the dogs, fed the dogs and knew them well," said Stewart.
But the dogs attacked. The female went after the woman, the male after the man.
The boyfriend, a big man, said Stewart, grabbed the bar from a trailer hitch and started swinging, but the dogs didn't stop.
"(Those dogs) were fighting for the kill," he said.
"My daughter came very close to it. (The dog) bit her collarbone and her breast and was going for the throat.
"Both said another minute and they wouldn't have been able to fight anymore; they figured they were both going to die there."
They managed to get out the side door.
At the hospital in Didsbury, he saw his daughter, with several chunks of flesh missing and many teeth punctures.
Her boyfriend was in even worse shape with many large chunks of flesh torn out from his arms and legs.
It took over 620 stitches to close him up.
Days later, both are at Stewart's place recovering. The beagle is, too.
The Akitas, taken from who Stewart described as their "just as sorry as can be" owner are in Calgary under quarantine and assessment for the next 10 days.
Bill Bruce, director for Calgary Animal and Bylaw Services, said the animals seem normal now. He could not offer an explanation as to what happened but noted it is odd to have a male and female together with a litter.
"She won't accept him; she would probably try to kill him to keep him away from her puppies," said Bruce.
"Having the female in a garage with the male there is what we would consider fairly high-risk (and) coming in with yet another dog (the beagle) would be high-risk."
The Akitas were Andrea Strang's, a fellow renter at the home.
She was charged in association with the dog attacks, and will appear in court in September, where she could face heavy fines and jail time for her animal's behaviour.
(Toronto Sun - July 31, 2011)
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