Hamilton woman recovering following violent dog attack

A Hamilton woman is recovering following a violent dog attack Thursday night.

Tamara Dufour and her partner, Marcel Camposilvan were riding on the Chedoke Radial Trail when she was mauled by a German Shepherd.

Dufour managed to fight the dog off by hitting it with her bike, but the damage was done. “They were on leashes, but the one yanked out of the leash and within seconds not even seconds, it was on my leg and attacking me, trying to rip my leg off,” Dufour said.

Camposilvan called an ambulance and Dufour spent the next nine hours in the hospital. It took about thirty stitches to close the wounds.

The couple called police and animal control to report the attack, but say they were told there was little anyone could do without more information about the man.

Camposilvan did his own investigative work to try and track down the man and his dogs. He put up a sign at the Chedoke Trail and reached out on social media.

The response was overwhelming and within hours he knew exactly where the man and his dogs lived. This afternoon Camposilvan even got a picture of the man to share with police and animal control, but he’s upset it was up to him to investigate.

“If a person stabbed her on the street and ran away they wouldn’t say ‘can you find his license plate, car, address, name, can you send us a photo of him?’ it was ridiculous,” Camposilvan said.

Dufour says she’s an animal lover but feels the dogs are too dangerous and need to be put down.

CHCH News reached out to animal control and they said they are investigating.