Owls in Canada Are Attacking Dogs

Advice for small dogs in Canada who spot an owl: Run and hide, quickly. The CBC reports on an unusual spate of attacks in the Edmonton area, the last two of which resulted in dogs losing an eye. In those cases, involving a Shih Tzu mix and a Havanese, the dogs were attacked right outside their own homes. And in each case, the owl showed no fear when the owners approached after realizing what was happening. One woman recalls calling to a friend inside the house for help. "He came up from the basement and went out and was flapping and yelling and the owl did not move," she says. "He finally kicked it off her and it landed and he picked it up and threw it but it flew away."

In the other case, the owl flew away only after the owner began pelting it with snow. Both dogs had an eye removed because of damage from the birds' talons. The attacks follow a third last month in which an owner of a Shih Tzu mix stopped an attack in her yard, per a separate CBC story. "It looked at me, and it blinked a couple of times, and I was just so surprised," says the owner, referring to the owl. She managed to pull her dog to safety, save for several talon punctures. These apparently aren't the only incidents, either. Workers at a vet clinic tell the news agency they knew of a "few" attacks, but didn't specify how many. (Humans might want to watch their backs, too.)