Animal control investigating alleged dog attack

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This article was published 27/05/2022 (1605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City of Brandon animal control is investigating after a man says he was attacked by a dog downtown earlier this week.

The 63-year-old man, who the Sun is not naming to protect his identity, said he was helping provide security at a downtown property when he was attacked by the dog around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.

People were spraying graffiti on a downtown building, near the intersection of Seventh Street and Rosser Avenue, he said. He went to confront them before a dog “came out of nowhere” and started attacking him.

“The dog pulled me down and I got up right away and I fought with the dog for two minutes,” he said, adding he tried to keep the dog away by punching it.

“He was just inches away from my extended fists.”

One of the people spraying graffiti said “heel” to the dog, before it stopped attacking and went back to its owner, he said.

After, the man called the police, who responded and found the group of people, but they didn’t charge the man with the dog. He said he is upset with the initial response by the police.

Now, the dog bite is infected and is purple and black, he said. He was given antibiotics at the hospital the day the bite happened and the day after.

The man has a white bandage wrapped around his left calf and walks with a limp. The area around the bandage was swollen when he met with the Sun Friday afternoon and he also had a pink hospital bracelet on his right wrist.

While the response from police was initially slow, the man said he met with a bylaw officer Friday morning, who is looking into the incident. The man said he is also writing a statement to police.

Brandon police public information officer Sgt. Kirby Sararas confirmed officers responded to a report of the incident early Wednesday morning. No injuries were noted by police at the time, but the man said he didn’t notice the bite until after.

No dog breeds, including pitbulls, are banned in the City of Brandon, she said. They are, however, banned in Winnipeg and have been for approximately 30 years after people were injured in attacks. Staffordshire bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and mixes are covered in Winnipeg’s municipal legislation.

Sararas confirmed City of Brandon animal control is following up on the dog in question, but no more information was available Friday.

Aggressive dogs are not a common issue in the city, she said.

“We’ve been very fortunate with very few incidents of dogs that have been … really problematic,” she said.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_