British Columbia

B.C. boy recovering from pit bull attack

A boy who was mauled by a pair of pit bulls on a Surrey, B.C., playground on Sunday says he shivers when he thinks about the attack.

A boy who was mauled by a pair of pit bulls on a Surrey, B.C., playground on Sunday says he shivers when he thinks about the attack.

"I hurt a lot — my arm, my face," Sean Bajwa, 11, told reporters on Tuesday while sitting in a wheelchair at Surrey Memorial hospital, numerous stitches on the right side of his face, his arms wrapped in bandages.

Bajwa, 11, was playing basketball with friends when he saw the two pit bulls wander onto the court.

"They started to walk towards me," he recalled. "I got scared, tried to get away, but I tripped and then they were all over me. They started licking me and then all of the sudden they bite me on my leg and both my arms. I couldn't feel a thing because all the skin was gone — like, there was like pieces of skin on their faces, on the dogs' faces."

He said he feels shivers and is having trouble sleeping, but hopes to go home in a couple of days.

Bajwa said he was grateful to Jordan Slezak, 20, the neighbour whose quick action may have saved his life. When Slezak saw what was happening, he grabbed a baseball bat and struck one of the dogs twice before it released Bajwa.

Bajwa blamed the owner of the dogs for the attack, and thinks both animals should be destroyed.

Both dogs are now in the custody of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and at least one of them has been determined to be dangerous, SPCA manager Janice Levers said Tuesday.

The male pit bull "is definitely a dangerous dog. He's very concerning to me, with the severity of this attack," she said.

Levers said the SPCA has located the dogs' owner, and are talking to him about the dogs' future.

The SPCA is also looking into the dogs' history, and is interviewing neighbours to see whether any other complaints have been made about them.