VICTORIA, British Columbia, June 28 (UPI) -- The owner of a Labrador-pit bull cross killed it following an attack on a 5-year-old boy in British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
The incident happened Friday west of Victoria, but news of the investigation only emerged Tuesday, the Victoria Times-Colonist reported.
Police said the boy was a neighbor of the unidentified 39-year-old dog owner and was playing with it in a yard when the child was bitten on the face.
The owner rushed to help and told police he used the dog's leash to hang it by the neck from a tree branch, officers said.
The child required emergency surgery to close a large wound on his cheek but was expected to make a full recovery, RCMP Staff Sgt. Steve Wright said.
Mounties turned the investigation over to the provincial Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was still investigating Tuesday, the newspaper said.
SPCA officials said they hadn't decided whether to press cruelty charges against the owner.
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