Norway House girl severely injured, scared to go back home after being mauled by pack of dogs

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.

Laurenda Scribe says her nine-year-old daughter is afraid to go back home to their northern Manitoba First Nation after being brutally attacked by 10 dogs last week.

On Thursday evening, Scribe says her two daughters left their Norway House Cree Nation home to find their younger brother, but got separated outside. Scribe started to panic when one of her daughters, Heavenly, did not return home alongside her siblings.

Soon after, two boys alerted Scribe that a young girl had been attacked by dogs nearby.

“We just dropped everything and we went running,” she told CBC News on Tuesday. “Sure enough, I saw my daughter laying down on the ground.”

Heavenly was attacked by 10 dogs, suffering dog bites to her cheek, chest and arm, Scribe said. She’s been left bruised, scratched and scared.

“They ripped off her whole cheek,” Scribe said.

Heavenly can recall parts of the attack, she said.

“She heard the dogs barking, and she said she turned around [and] all these dogs just came and started attacking her.”

Norway House RCMP got a report about a dog biting a girl in the community around 8 p.m. Thursday, spokesperson Sgt. Paul Manaigre told CBC News in an email.

The officers were unable to find the animal, which witnesses described as a white dog, he said. RCMP and First Nation safety officers saw a pack of dogs when they arrived in the area, but the animals ran off.

‘They’re still running around’

Lorraine Trout, Heavenly’s grandmother, says a passerby risked his life to save the girl from the dogs. After the attack, Heavenly was medevaced to the Children’s Hospital in Winnipeg, where she had surgery on Friday morning.

Heavenly needed tetanus shots and stitches that run from her ear down to her mouth, said Trout.

“No kid deserves to get bitten the way my granddaughter got bit,” she said.

There have always been loose dogs in the community of about 9,000 people, but Trout says they’ve only started to attack and bite people in recent years.

Her son was also bitten by a stray dog the same night Heavenly was attacked.

“It’s scary to walk around.”

Scribe said people have been increasingly complaining about dogs roaming the community since winter, and she was attacked by one around that time. But the attack on her daughter has been the worst so far, she said.

Community members have started to capture loose dogs in the area since Thursday, but Scribe says she’s heard that the dogs that were believed to be involved in her daughter’s attack are still out there.

“They’re still alive. They’re still running around.”

New rules coming: councillor

Norway House Cree Nation Coun. Deon Clarke says he’s shocked by the attack, but acknowledges there have been other attacks in the community.

He says leadership has been working on an animal control bylaw that may require pet owners to register their animals and keep them on leashes, or face fines.

“Unfortunately the timing wasn’t quick enough,” he told CBC on Tuesday.

“We weren’t able to implement it right away [and] that still has to go through a process, but in the meantime we’ve started working with people in the community to capture the dogs.”

He says about 20 stray dogs have been captured since the attack on Heavenly. The animals are either being humanely put down or sent to rescue shelters in Winnipeg, he said.

Norway House has grown into a “little city,” said Clarke, meaning people there can no longer allow their dogs to roam freely.

It’s not yet known who owns the dogs that attacked Heavenly, but Clarke said he wants to hold them accountable for her injuries.

“Ultimately, this is the dog owner’s responsibility.”

Scribe said her daughter will need therapy and might stay in Winnipeg longer as she recovers from the emotional trauma of the attack.

“She’s doing a lot better now, but she’s scared to go back to Norway House,” said Scribe.

“She broke down a couple times, because she said she can’t smile and she’s ugly,” she said.

“We told her, ‘You’re going to be beautiful no matter what, with or without a scar. You’re going to get your smile back.'”