RCMP Insp. Frank Smart, speaks to reporters at RCMP headquarters in Calgary in this Tuesday Aug. 21, 2012. RCMP have laid a criminal charge after a woman was severely mauled by two pit-bull type dogs in a west-central Alberta mobile home park. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Bill Graveland
August 22, 2012 - 4:24 PM
SUNDRE, Alta. - Two pit-bull-type dogs that mauled a woman at a home in southern Alberta, allegedly on command from their owner, had been declared vicious by town officials.
Peace officer Kevin Heerema (HERE'-ah-mah) says the dogs escaped from their yard at a mobile home park in Sundre and seriously attacked another dog last October.
He says declaring the dogs vicious under the town's bylaw required them to be muzzled and on short leashes when out in public and confined to a pen when in their yard.
He says there was also a complaint last month that the dogs were not confined and their owner had not renewed their licences.
RCMP are still searching for the dogs' owner, 57-year-old Rita Phillip, who disappeared following the attack on Saturday.
A 26-year-old woman visiting the home was so severely mauled by the dogs that first responders initially thought she was dead.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2012