Four women hospitalized as pit bulls turn on owners

SURREY — Four women were rushed to hospital Friday afternoon after they tried to break up a fight between their three pit bulls.

Jas Rehal, manager of bylaw enforcement and licensing for the City of Surrey, said their animal control officers got a call about 2:30 p.m. that the women had been attacked by the pit bulls inside their house.

He said RCMP, ambulance crews and fire officials converged on the scene at 113 Avenue and Loughren Drive in north Surrey to find the women suffering primarily from arm wounds.

“It was a pretty gruesome scene, blood everywhere,” said Rehal, adding that he didn’t know how serious their injuries were.

“Our understanding is that it was the owners’ dogs and that the dogs got into a fight, and the owners were trying to stop the dogfight.”

The dogs then turned on the women, he said.

Rehal said the pit bulls — along with a Shih Tzu that was not involved in the fight — were taken into custody by animal control officers and that there has been no decision yet on what to do with them.

He said that there hadn’t been problems at the house before involving the pit bulls and that there is believed to be no safety risk to the public.

He said none of the responders was injured while corralling the pit bulls. “Once we were there, we got them under control pretty quickly.”

Friday’s pit bull attack follows several other recent pit bull attacks in British Columbia: • June 2016: A woman needed emergency facial surgery after being mauled by her friend’s pit bull terrier. The woman in charge of the pit bull terrier said the incident was a “total accident.” • April 2016: A nine-year-old girl was taken to hospital after being bitten by a pit bull outside her family’s residence in Surrey. The dog belonged to the family’s landlord. • December 2015: On Christmas Day, Robin Elgie and his girlfriend were mauled by two pit bulls that invaded their Fort St. John trailer home. The attack nearly cost Elgie one of his arms. • July 2015: A man and woman were treated in hospital after suffering serious but non-life-threatening head and facial injuries when they were mauled by a pit bull in a New Westminster apartment. • July 2015 : A pit bull attacked a teenage newspaper carrier. It broke through the screen on a door to get at her and was later killed by police. • April 2015: A nine-year-old Penticton girl was the victim of an unprovoked pit bull attack, requiring five stitches on her arm.