Two youths are out of hospital after a dog attacked them on Tuesday afternoon.
St. Albert municipal enforcement officers were called to investigate a pit bull biting a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old inside a home on Mission Avenue shortly after 4 p.m. on June 9.
The youth were taken to the Sturgeon Community Hospital with puncture wounds. One boy needed about eight stitches to his leg, while the other had wounds on his forearm. They were released from hospital later that day.
Officers spoke to the owner of the residence after the attack took place. The13-year-old lives in the residence, while the older boy came home with him after school.
In an earlier press release, RCMP said the dog might have been startled by the boys entering the home and then attacked them. The dog was isolated within the home after the attack and remains quarantined. Charges are pending against the dog owner and the investigation continues.
Dangerous dog designation
The adult pit bull has a history with municipal enforcement. It previously bit another dog in the neighbourhood but never attacked a person, said Stu Fraser, supervisor with the peace officer program.
According to St. Albert's animal bylaw, officers can seize a dog for up to 21 days to determine if it's dangerous. They can also impose conditions for dogs considered dangerous, such as wearing a muzzle when leaving the owner's property. Only individual dogs will be declared dangerous based on their behaviour, not dog breeds.
But the city cannot enforce that a dog is given away or put down, said Fraser. In extreme circumstances, officers can make a recommendation to a provincial justice that a dog be destroyed under the authority of the dangerous dog act.
"The whole provision of the dangerous dog designation is that it puts more and more restrictive onus on the owner on how they control their animal. But the act doesn't allow us the authority to order it out of the community," said Fraser. "And that's where we would defer it to the provincial dangerous dogs act if the dog was so out of control or unable to be retrained."
No decision will be made about the pit bull until the investigation into the attack and the dog's behaviour is complete.
