Man helps to free young boy from dog attack

A Barrie resident stepped in to help save a young boy from a dog attack this week.

A Barrie resident stepped in to help save a young boy from a dog attack.

“As I begin to back up, I noticed in my rearview mirror that there was a shadow in the parking lot,” said Shawn Hillen, a Barrie resident.

That shadow turned out to be a dog attacking an 11-year-old boy who was on his way to school.

Hillen was late for work and, luckily, was in the right place at the right time. After repeatedly hitting the dog, trying to free the young victim, Hillen ran back to his car and grabbed a snow brush.

“Started hitting it and I guess I hit it pretty hard in the head with my snow brush where my snow brush broke and that’s when the dog backed up a bit and my first instinct was to grab the boy,” said Hillen.

Hillen then picked the badly injured boy up over his head to keep him away from the dog who was still jawing at the boy. Hillen said the attack lasted almost 10 full minutes along Essa Road at Loggers Run.

“Unfortunately, the dog was gone by the time we got there. The child was taken to hospital with severe injuries where he remains at this time,” said Insp. Pat Brouillard with the Barrie Police Service.

Police described the dog as a large bully breed with light brown colouring also wearing a leash at the time.

The attack happened just before 9 on Monday morning. The dog was later seen near Patterson Road and Florence Park before being seen near Dove Crescent and Ferndale Woods Elementary School. That school was put into a hold-and-secure.

Police said they are still frantically looking for the animal and the owner.

Many parents are not taking any chances with their little ones until the dog is caught.

“Usually they walk by themselves, but in this kind of situation I just feel I’m going to walk them to the light and watch them go forward and see what happens. I hope they find it for anyone’s sake,” said Liz Khan, a Barrie resident. “Because we live around the area and I knew it was kind of behind our home and obviously my first concern was my children and a baby so yeah, it was very scary.”