‘I thought I was going to die,’ says woman mauled by stray dogs on First Nation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/05/2023 (914 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Annabelle McKay expected the worst as the dogs set upon her in the dark and she fell to the ditch filled with water.

“They ripped my clothes right off from me. I don’t know how I managed — I don’t know how I’m still alive today,” the 52-year-old Fisher River Cree Nation woman said.

The mother of three was mauled by dogs — two or three, she said — shortly after midnight on Sunday on the northern edge of Peguis First Nation.

She spoke to the Free Press from her hospital bed at Health Sciences Centre Thursday, where she was under observation after being airlifted with serious injuries from the Interlake Indigenous community about 180 kilometres north of Winnipeg on Sunday.

Fisher Branch RCMP were called to the scene at about 12:25 a.m., where officers found McKay, who had crawled to the home of a woman who called for help.

McKay had been making her way back to her place in Fisher River Cree Nation, having spent the night visiting her brother and sister-in-law in Peguis. The two communities are about 22 kilometres apart.

She had been hoping for a ride, but instead set out on foot along Provincial Road 224.

When she reached Dallas, a small community on the northeast edge of Peguis, she heard the dogs barking.

“I didn’t think I would get attacked, I just kept on walking on the road,” McKay said.

“I kept on walking, hoping they’d leave me alone, but no…. The dogs came up to me, I started swinging my purse, then they started biting, attacking me.”

“They had big jaws on them. I thought I was going to die.”–Annabelle McKay

The dogs forced her to the ground and she fell into the ditch for what felt like “forever,” but was likely only a few moments.

The big brown-and-black dogs — possibly boxers, McKay said — frightened her as she fended for her life.

“They had big jaws on them. I thought I was going to die,” she said.

“I was fighting back… I started yelling, then I heard somebody else yelling, and I’m pretty sure that was the lady… at a house.”

Another dog — likely the homeowner’s — bounded up to the animals attacking McKay.

“The one dog chased the other two dogs away from me,” she said.

“It stood up for me, it barked at the other dogs and those other dogs took off and left me alone.”

McKay thinks she must have gone into shock, because the last thing she recalls is the woman yelling as she tried to crawl to her home.

Staples needed to close cuts on head, arm

In Winnipeg, health-care workers have been tending to McKay’s numerous wounds, which included staples to close the 15 or so deep cuts in her scalp and on her head.

They stapled the 20-centimetre-long slash on her arm, and she’s been given shots for rabies, said McKay, who was set to be discharged from hospital Thursday.

She said she wants to forget about the horrifying attack.

“All my friends and family are talking about it back home, in Fisher and Peguis,” said McKay.

“Everybody’s talking about it — I asked, everyone, just leave it alone.”

Dogs believed to have been put down

RCMP said Peguis First Nation’s chief and council informed police the dogs believed to be responsible were put down, but local Mounties are still investigating the mauling.

That gives McKay comfort.

“I feel safer for other people walking on the road — there’s always somebody walking in Dallas, Peguis. You never know what could happen next,” she said.

She said she hopes the leadership of two First Nations work to address the problem.

“I’m hoping they’ll try to do something about the stray dogs, for sure — there’s a lot of dogs just roaming around on the roads,” McKay said.

She’s not sure how she’ll feel when she gets back home to see dogs roaming, adding that her adult daughter, who was bitten by a dog in Fisher River about a year-and-a-half ago, is now terrified of the animals.

However, McKay said she doesn’t want anyone in the communities to blame themselves.

“It’s nobody’s fault,” she said.

erik.pindera@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @erik_pindera