By: Doug Speirs
An Oakbank-area family say they lived through a “nightmare” this week when one of their beloved pet dogs was dragged away and fatally mauled by a massive wolf.
“It was a complete and total nightmare,” Janelle Carlson, 39, said Thursday morning. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Carlson said her husband, Jeff, took the family’s two dogs – an 11-pound, two-year-old Chihuahua, miniature-pinscher cross named Spencer and a 12-year-old Lab-shepherd cross named Buddy – outside just after 7 a.m. Tuesday morning.
She said the two dogs wandered into the woods beside their home, which is located about two kilometres south of Birds Hill Park, to do their business.
“The dogs walked quietly into the woods, sniffing and the next thing my husband heard was a sound like screaming, a sound you don’t hear from a dog normally,” she said. “Spencer was screaming for his life.”
Carlson said her husband ran towards the noise and “when he got there he could see the rear end of a wolf in the woods through the trees. The wolf was huge. He thought it looked to be the size of a deer and my husband is six-seven.
“The wolf was shaking and shuddering because it was trying to tear Spencer apart. Then Spencer’s screaming stopped. Spencer was just a tiny little thing.”
Her husband raced back to the house, then the couple returned to the woods, where they found Spencer’s mangled body lying dead in the brush.
“We tried to revive him, but there were no signs of life. He had been dead for several minutes. We miss him. This dog was so good.”
The couple reported the tragedy immediately to Manitoba Conservation. “They came out Wednesday and we showed them the site,” Carlson said. “They’ve passed the case to wildlife officials and they’re deciding what to do.
“I’m hoping they don’t kill the animal. I hope they relocate it.”
But she said the couple, parents of an 18-month-old girl, worry about the safety of children in the area.
“The wolf definitely hunted Spencer,” she said. “Manitoba Conservation said there are no known reports of wolves attacking humans in Manitoba.”
She said it marks the first time they’ve seen a wolf in the area, but noted it’s common knowledge among residents that the predators do roam the region.
“For us, it was a complete shock,” she said. “We didn’t know and I guess we should have. We want other pet owners to be cautious.”