Five months ago, Isabelle Simard was leaving work at a wolf conservation centre in Golden, B.C. when a pair of Karilian Bear dogs went after her.
“I saw the dogs and they were both looking at me,” she remembers. “[A dog] bit me…brought me down to my knees, at that point I thought, ‘someone is gonna come help me out.’
“I remember being on the ground…I thought, ‘they’re not stopping.’ I started to really panic.”
It was then that the dogs—pets of the conservation centre’s owners—nearly killed her.
“I got bit in my face and my ear. That noise, that feeling of teeth on skull…I will never forget that, it stays with you.”
Simard came close to giving up for good, but that’s when a co-worker got in the middle and saved her.
“I still think if nobody intervened I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.”
Simard was seriously injured, needing stitches and a skin graft to repair her injuries. She also suffered psychological wounds, losing the confidence to be alone and feeling threatened by any animal.
It turns out the dogs have an aggressive history. There was a previous encounter where a visitor was attacked by one of the dogs—something the owners never told Simard.
So far RCMP have not laid any charges, but one of the dogs has been euthanized. Global News attempted to speak with the owners of the Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre, but they did not respond to requests for comment.
(Global Edmonton - Sept 17, 2012)
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