Little Grand Rapids residents live with fear of dog attacks, says MLA whose husband found mauled woman's body

The interim leader of Manitoba's Liberal party says fear of violent stray dogs is a constant for residents of the remote First Nation where a young mother was attacked and killed by dogs last week.

Donnelly Rose Eaglestick, 24, was found dead and surrounded by roughly 30 stray dogsSaturday morning at a construction site in Little Grand Rapids First Nation, a fly-in community about 270 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. RCMP later confirmed she died from an animal attack.

Eaglestick leaves behind a five-year-old daughter, whose father previously died of exposure.

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The husband of Manitoba interim Liberal leader Judy Klassen was one of a group of construction workers who discovered Eaglestick's remains on his way to work.

The MLA for Kewatinook visited the community for a day and a half and said its members are wrapped in "overwhelming sadness," coupled with fear of another attack.

"The dogs are still roaming the community. This is an ongoing thing. It's not just recent that there's been an attack," she said.

"It was quite shocking to find out that it's been almost normalized where kids are trained to walk with sticks. They live in constant fear of these wild ones, the ones that roam in and out of the community.

"Even young kids, you see everybody walking with sticks is the community. So it's just always living with that fear. It seems if you're a little bigger then you walk around with a big stick. If you're a little kid, you have a little stick."

'Living in constant fear'

Klassen said Saturday started as an ordinary morning for her husband, who works for Penn-Co Construction in Blumenort, Man., and is currently based in Little Grand Rapids to build a new water treatment plant for the community.

"Typical, getting up in the morning and you go to work, and they come upon a sight that is ingrained in his memory that he can't get rid of," Klassen said.

"He started yelling at his crew. One ran for the band liaison's house. One ran to go use the phone to phone the RCMP. And then the workers who are from the community, they started throwing rocks and trying to get the dogs away."

Klassen said her husband was traumatized by the experience.

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A crisis team from Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, an organization representing Manitoba First Nations, is in the community and has held a sharing circle with residents, Klassen said. The team is expected to remain in Little Grand Rapids until Thursday and will come back if needed, she added.​