A 55-year-old man has been arrested and charged with assault with a weapon after an attack in a Nanaimo dog park.
Two dogs and their owners were hit with a stick and pepper-sprayed Monday at Invermere Beach off Blue Back Road.
“The women were on the beach with two other adult friends and their four dogs,” said Nanaimo RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien in a statement. “At one point, a male walked by them and started screaming he hated dogs.”
The man hit a dog with a stick and pepper-sprayed it, he said.
“The owner approached and, when she went to remove the dog, she too was hit by a stick and pepper-sprayed on the side of her face,” O’Brien said.
The man then walked toward another group of dogs and their owners and started yelling, he said.
The man, who will appear in Nanaimo provincial court on Sept. 11, was released with conditions not to enter the off-leash dog park at Invermere Beach or possess weapons.
