Doug McNeil, 84, was out for a morning walk in the Mission Hill area of Vernon on Sept. 4 when a dog jumped up on his chest and knocked him backwards down the slope.
“When he knocked me down I remember hitting the ground and him biting on me. I tried to keep him off my face so I had bite marks on me,” said McNeil.
“I thought this is a hell of a way to go.”
When her husband put up his hands to protect himself, the dog bit his arms and three men had to pull the animal away, she said.
"They could see that he was badly hurt, he couldn't get up," said his wife Joyce McNeil.
"IT'S CHANGED OUR LIFE COMPLETELY"
He spent almost three weeks in hospital and now needs home care.
“They had to rebuild the hip bone. It was shattered,” said McNeil.
"It's changed our life completely," said Joyce McNeil. "I don't know if he'll ever walk properly again, I'm not sure."
"He's lost a ton of weight. He's not in good shape. If he hadn't been a strong 84, I don't know that he would've survived."
More than a month later he is still recovering. The senior doesn’t want to see the same thing happen to anyone else and is calling for restrictions on the breed of dog that attacked him, which he believes was a bull mastiff.
“Get that breed of dog off the street. It’s almost [as] big as a man. Knocked me flat,” said McNeil.
BULL MASTIFF OWNER SAID TO BE "APOLOGETIC"
The dog owner, who is from Alberta, has been fined, and was apologetic, said Pat Ellis, the dog control contractor in Vernon.
"He was quite upset, he said this has never happened before with this dog," said Ellis.
A muzzle order has been placed on the animal.
Still, Joyce McNeil wants her family's story to serve as a warning to other dog owners.
"I think it's a responsibility, if you own a large dog, to keep it under control," she said.
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| Doug McNeil is lucky to be alive, but his life has completely changed as a result of being attacked by a Bull Mastiff |
VICIOUS DOG ALLOWED TO REMAIN WITH OWNER
In the McNeil case, dog control said the animal was declared dangerous and must now be muzzled when out in public.
“We did issue tickets to the dog owner. He was quite upset about the whole thing himself. It is my understanding that they have surrendered the dog to a dog training facility at the moment to have it assessed and [the facility] will decide if the dog will be put down or not,” said Ellis.
Meanwhile, McNeil estimates he still has weeks of recovery left before he can get around with just a cane.
The McNeils have hired a lawyer and hope to get financial compensation for medical costs.
(CBC CA - Oct 11, 2016)
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