Eight-year-old Zakkari Shlachetka had to be treated in hospital for multiple lacerations March 29 after a neighbour’s dog broke loose and attacked him on Batchelar Road in Wabowden.

According to eyewitness Mary Genaille, Shlachetka was returning from his aunt’s house across the street with his seven-year-old cousin in tow around lunchtime when the incident took place.

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“This yelling kept getting louder and louder, so I looked out the window and the boy was already on the ground,” she said. “And what it looked like to me is he was trying to protect his little cousin. He kept trying to block that dog.”

Even though the younger of the two children managed to escape, the medium-sized dog, described by Zakkari’s mother Brian Shlachetka as a pit bull, still did a number on Zakkari’s arm, hand and neck until the owner finally intervened and managed to contain the animal.

“I was so shaken up seeing that dog pull that boy by the arm,” said Genaille. “He was dragging him around, almost like in a circle.”

Zakkari was able to return home under his own power, and his mother immediately rushed him to the local nursing station and eventually to Thompson General Hospital.

The eight-year-old ended up getting nine stitches in his arm and some skin glue for his hand. Although his neck didn’t require any stiches, it still took a couple of hours before the wound stopped bleeding.

Luckily, Zakkari bounced back rather quickly, so much so that he was able to attend school on Monday. He even met up with Genaille to let her know he was OK.

“He came and saw me yesterday,” she said April 1. “He brought a picture over that he drew for me, because he knew I was having a hard time. After I gave him a big hug I felt much better.”

Brian went on to say that the dog that attacked her son is currently locked up in a 10-day quarantine, and she expects that animal will be put down when this period expires.

Manitoba RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Julie Courchaine said April 2 that the dog’s owner is cooperating with the investigation.

However, Brian said this isn’t going to solve the problem in the long term, since she says her neighbour still owns other pit bulls and has a history of treating them poorly.

When she served as the community’s dog catcher last year, Brian had to get another one of her neighbour’s dogs put down because it was too aggressive.

“This is going to happen again,” she said. “He has more [dogs]. They’re going to be raised like that and it’s going to be an endless cycle.”

Outside of making sure that her son receives proper counselling in the wake of this attack, Brian also wants to work with community members in Wabowden and Thompson to make sure that her neighbour isn’t allowed to own dogs anymore.

“If you’re going to raise your dogs to be vicious you shouldn’t have dogs at all,” she said. “I don’t want to see my son like that ever again, so I’m going to take all possible actions to ensure that this doesn’t happen again for any other kid in town.”