The SPCA and RCMP are investigating after a dog owner reportedly hanged the animal to death after it attacked a five-year-old boy.
Mounties alerted cruelty investigators after the owner of a Labrador retriever pit bull cross told authorities he hanged the pet by its leash after it lunged out and bit the child several times.
The boy required emergency surgery for facial injuries following the incident, which happened in the small community of Shirley, B.C., east of Victoria, last Friday.
The dog was dead by the time police arrived.
Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations with the BC SPCA, told ctvbc.ca the agency is mulling charges against the owner.
While it is legal to use force to prevent human injury during an animal attack, Moriarty said the dog in question had already been separated from the child when it was killed – and the law prohibits inhumane treatment after the fact.
"Hanging a dog is not instantaneous death. Hanging a dog is not acceptable under any circumstance," she said.
Moriarty said the incident is a reminder that young children should be not be left unsupervised with a dog.
"This family is going through something that nobody would ever ask – having your child disfigured -- but we can't condone taking out obvious upset and anger on this dog in that fashion," she said.
