HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — A woman in Canada walking her dog Tuesday morning was killed by her pet, which was later fatally hit by a vehicle after it ran away, authorities said.
The woman, a resident of the rural Nova Scotia community of Middle Musquodoboit, has not been identified, CBC reported. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the dog as a pit bull, according to CTV News.
Jocelyn Parker told the network she was driving her own dog to “doggy daycare” Tuesday morning when she saw a dog and a girl on the side of the road. Parker said the girl, in her teens, flagged her down.
“She said, ‘Come quick, come quick,’" Parker told CTV News. “She said, ‘There’s a lady laying in the ditch, there’s a body.'”
The dog bolted from the scene and ran down a nearby dirt road, and Parker called 911, CBC reported.
“At that point, we hadn’t put together that the dog was perhaps behind the incident,” Parker told CTV News. “He was not aggressive to us.”
RCMP officers who met Parker and the teen agreed the woman had been attacked by the dog and sent out an alert on Twitter. Around 9:30, police received a report that the dog was struck and killed by a passing motorist, CBC reported.
The driver, Mark Taylor, told CTV News that he struck the dog on purpose. Taylor said he was concerned for the safety of his grandchildren and was worried the dog might attack again, the network reported.
“I’m glad I came across the dog and took care of it because it really bothered me to think about what else could have happened to the people that didn’t know this was going on, so I’m very thankful,” Taylor told CTV News. “A lot of people didn’t know. I know in this area a lot of people walk along the roads, so I was concerned with that, but I also have livestock in that direction.”
Taylor, who described himself as an animal lover, said he made a snap decision to kill the animal and believed it was the right call.
“It was very fast. I don’t know how to describe it, it was surreal,” Taylor told CTV News. “I didn’t concern myself with any repercussions. I took care of the dog.
“I don’t want to sensationalize what I did," Taylor added. “I want people to focus on this poor girl and what happened to her and her family.”