Dog stabbed at SE Calgary off-leash park by stranger

A Calgary woman says she is lucky she and her dog are alright after a traumatic incident at a southeast dog park last week.

Kirsten tells 660 NewsRadio that last Sunday, Sept. 28, she was out with her dog Willow, a 10-year-old Russian European Laika, at the Queensland off-leash dog park.

She says she saw a man walking by himself up ahead who stopped and rummaged through his backpack.

“He pulled something out, which kind of glittered in the sun. I just thought it was cellophane or something like that,” Kirsten recalls.

After putting his backpack on, the man continued toward Kirsten and Willow.

The dog was off-leash and sniffing in the grass, when the man put out his arms, as if to greet Willow.

“He just suddenly bent over, reached down, and stabbed her with a knife,” Kirsten says. “He then stood up and looked at me and screamed that my dog
had attacked him and that I should lock up my dog.”

She says she yelled at him and he walked away.

Willow was left with a puncture wound in her neck that luckily missed vital areas, her owner says. She went to the vet to get it stitched up.

Kirsten says it could’ve been much worse.

“I think about that after as well that if you know — I mean, I did, of course, yell back at him — he had just stabbed my dog,” she says. “But afterwards, I thought about ‘My God, like he could have turned on me.’ At that point, I wasn’t thinking about it, but it could have happened.”

Kirsten, who lives nearby, was able to capture images of the suspect on her surveillance cameras. However, the description she has is rather vague.

She says he had light brown skin, was in his 30s, and about 5’10” and slender. At the time of the incident, he was wearing dark pants, a dark blue hoodie with the hood up, and glasses.

Kirsten hopes the man can be apprehended before this happens to someone else.

Calgary police confirm they are investigating the incident.