Vicious dog attack angers Sask. mom

An Ile-a-la-Crosse woman is calling for tougher animal control bylaws after a stray dog mauled her six-year-old son.

Angella McKay heard her son Shiloh Berscheid screaming outside her home Saturday evening. She ran out and saw that his face was covered in blood.

"The gashes were close to the size of my finger wide," McKay told CBC News.

The boy was rushed to the local hospital, and later flown 500 kilometres south to Saskatoon for emergency surgery at the Royal University Hospital. McKay said her son needed roughly 60 stitches to close the cuts, but added that he is recovering well.

"I really hope he doesn't develop a phobia of dogs because of this," McKay said.

RCMP found the dog on Sunday morning, and destroyed it with the owner's permission.

Dianne McCallum, the local administrator in Ile-a-la-Crosse, told CBC News that the village has been trying to find someone to control the packs of stray dogs for months. She said that a man finally offered to become the local dogcatcher after the attack on the weekend.

"We need to address the dogs that are still running around, and possibly being a danger to the children," she said. The new dogcatcher is scheduled to start this week, she added.