86-Year-Old Woman Dies After Being Attacked By 3 Dogs & Calgary Applies To Put Them Down

The City of Calgary has applied to have three dogs put down after they fatally attacked an 86-year-old woman last month.

In a statement, the city said it had asked the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta to order that the dogs are "humanely euthanized" under the Dangerous Dogs Act following the attack on June 5.

Emergency responders arrived on the scene of the incident in northwest Calgary at around 2 p.m. after it was reported that a senior woman had been attacked by three unknown dogs.

Around the time of the attack, police said nearby neighbours had tried to intervene in the attack and the owner of the dogs was able to remove them from the scene before emergency services arrived.

The woman was transported to the hospital in a life-threatening condition, and police said she died "a short time later."

The dogs were seized by officers and are being held while the outcome of the Dangerous Dog Act application is decided.

Police said that they believe the dogs are a "North American pit bull terrier mix, a North American Staffordshire mix and an American pit bull."

"The Dangerous Dogs Act application deals only with the disposition of the dogs and requests that the Court order the dogs involved in the incident to be humanely euthanized," the City of Calgary said in the statement.

It is important to evaluate and treat each dog as an individual, no matter its breed. To learn more about the physical and behavioural traits and history of pit bulls, we encourage you to consult this breed study by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare as well as this statement from the ASPCA.