PIT BULLS ATTACK MAN
Police forced to shoot dogs
A 40-year-old man is recovering in a Saskatoon hospital from life-threatening injuries after being attacked by his own dogs outside a home in the Riversdale neighbourhood.
Officers were dispatched late Friday, around 11:50 p.m., to a home in the 400 block of Avenue E South, where the attack was taking place. Members of the air support unit spotted the attack in progress, and when officers arrived at the scene they quickly located the man “still being attacked by the two, largebreed dogs,” police said in a news release. “Both dogs then began to aggressively advance toward the officers, who were forced to discharge their service weapons and stop the threat,” police said.
Both dogs are dead, police added. The dogs “came from the same address as the injured man,” police said later in a Facebook comment.
The attack victim — identified by a friend as 40-year-old Chris Bayet — was rushed by ambulance to hospital.
No officers were injured in the incident, according to a Saskatoon police spokeswoman on Sunday. No further details about the investigation were immediately available, she said.
Stelly Wall, who identified himself as a friend of Bayet’s, confirmed to the Saskatoon Starphoenix that Bayet was the owner of the two pit bulls. Wall said he does not know any further details about the incident or what prompted the attack.
Wall described Bayet as “a tough cookie.” He said Bayet is doing well and is expected to recover from the attack.
In a Facebook post on its official SPS page, police said “every situation is different” and that officers “would make every effort to ensure everyone remained safe, dogs included.”
Police cordoned off the sidewalk in front of the home following the attack. On Saturday morning, two large pools of blood were visible in the snow.
Neighbours on Saturday said they heard commotion and then gunshots when the incident took place. A woman who lives across the street said she witnessed an injured man run next door for help prior to police arriving. There was a significant amount of blood on the stairs and front entryway of the neighbouring house.
The incident will be reviewed in accordance with police policy.
— With Starphoenix files from Erin Petrow and Dave Deibert