加拿大的孩子呢?
Updated: 2006-11-17 at 18:54:32 EST
Dogs running loose on northern Alberta reserve kill five-year-old boy
FORT VERMILION, Alta. (CP) - People on two remote northern Alberta reserves were grieving Friday after a five-year-old boy was mauled to death by a pack of dogs.
The attack on the North Tallcree reserve was so vicious that the boy's facial features were destroyed, said Sgt. Ryan Becker of Fort Vermilion RCMP. "He had a lot of trauma to his upper body and to his facial area, and that prevented us from making a positive identification last evening," Becker said Friday.
Family members later confirmed the identification but asked that the boy's name not be released.
"They are currently coming to terms with the loss," Becker said.
Donna Roberts, a North Tallcree band councillor, said the boy and his mother were from the nearby Little Red River Cree reserve and had been visiting relatives when the attack happened Thursday around suppertime.
It was eerily similar to one seven years ago at Garden River on the Little Red River reserve.
Five-year-old Cecilia Alook was killed by dogs in November 1999 when she stopped to play with a puppy just 200 metres from her home.
That attack was blamed on animals that were starving.
Roberts said the latest attack has shocked residents of North Tallcree, a village of about 250 people some 180 kilometres from the Northwest Territories boundary.
"This is a very close-knit community," she said. "It's very small. Everybody knows everybody."
Government health officials were providing grief counselling.
"The community elders are also involved in the grieving process," Roberts said.
Becker said stray dogs have been a chronic problem on both the Tallcree and the Little Red River reserves.
After the 1999 attack, local governments on both reserves passed bylaws authorizing animal control officers to destroy strays.
There were no actual witnesses to Thursday's attack, said Dylan Thomas, acting chief executive officer of the Tallcree Tribal Government.
But police believe about five dogs were involved.
Officers were called out after the boy's body was found on the side of a road.
Two of the dogs, a Rottweiler and a German shepherd cross, were seized by police and were being held in quarantine.
"These dogs had been tied up earlier that day," Becker said. "It's not known what time they broke loose from their chains, but they were tied up again when we arrived back on scene.
"We're going to make attempts to find out which other dogs were involved, but I'm not sure how successful we will be."
The owner of the two dogs was deeply distressed by the attack, Becker said.
"He's quite upset, very upset," he said, noting that the dogs were family pets with no history of violence.
Police were still investigating to determine whether charges were warranted.
In the 1999 attack, community members destroyed the five dogs that killed little Cecilia Alook, and no charges were laid.
In a short news release, Thomas asked that the boy's family and community "be left alone to grieve."
Roberts said his mother was being comforted by friends and relatives.
She didn't want to comment further, saying, "the RCMP are investigating right now and we'll wait for that report."
-By Lorraine Turchansky in Edmonton.
© The Canadian Press, 2006