Dog that bit children in Montreal North will be euthanized, borough mayor says

A dog that bit and severely injured two young children in a Montreal North apartment Sunday, before going on to bite four other people, will be euthanized, according to the borough mayor.

During a council meeting on Tuesday, Christine Black said borough officials will be given the go-ahead to sign an order to euthanize the dog.

Her comments came during a debate about the city's new animal control bylaw, which she announced she would vote against. The bylaw passed, 49 votes for and 11 against.

"When I read what happened in Montreal North, I can't help but ask the question, ask myself, 'Can we do more? Can we make sure that situations such as what happened recently don't happen again?'"

A police report obtained by Radio-Canada and made public Tuesday detailed what happened during the incident on Sunday that left a total of six people injured.

Police officers described finding blood on the kitchen floor and walls in the aftermath.

CBC News is not naming the children involved to protect their identities.

Children left alone, report says

According to witness and victim testimonies inside the nine-page document, a 62-year-old family member had taken the dog in on Saturday, intending to transfer it to the SPCA.

In the report, police describe the dog as a "one-and-a-half-year-old pit bull that weighs 70 pounds." Experts have not yet confirmed the exact breed.

The dog's owner had advised the 62-year-old woman that the animal had to wear a muzzle 24 hours a day, because the dog had already bitten another dog in a park.

On Sunday at around 10 a.m., the dog reportedly freed itself from a muzzle and bit one of four children in the home at the time, a four-year-old girl, on the back of her head.

The woman left the apartment in Montreal North with the child to go to hospital, leaving the other three children alone in the house with the dog trapped between two doors in the home's entrance.

She called one of the children's mothers and asked her to come to the apartment, the report says.

The mother told police she arrived 30 minutes later with three more children.

The dog got loose at around 3 p.m. and attacked two of the children, one of them a seven-year-old boy, according to the report. His arm was seriously injured.

A passerby, Sylvain Proulx, was finally able to subdue the dog who had by then gotten out onto the street, the report says.

In total, four children, the 62-year-old woman and a man who tried to intervene were injured during the incident.

The SPCA has confirmed that it had a dog in its custody that was entrusted to it by Montreal police, and is awaiting further instructions.

Animal control bylaw

The report came out the same day Montreal's city council adopted the Plante administration's proposed amendments to the city's animal control bylaw.

Black said despite the fact that the dog will be killed, it still managed to seriously injure two children.

She said in the current context, she felt uncomfortable voting in favour of the bylaw.