3-year-old attacked by dogs in Fort Hall

FORT HALL — A 3-year-old boy is recovering at a Utah hospital after being attacked by a group of dogs in Fort Hall Sunday.

The family says they were bringing in groceries to their house on D Street when they noticed the boy didn’t come inside.

That is when they heard the commotion of the dogs.

The boy was being dragged by the group of dogs through the street.

His grandfather and some good Samaritans fought off the dogs and started treating the boy on the side of the road.

He was taken to Portneuf Medical Center to be stabilized and was flown to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

The family says he had wounds all over his body.

He had to receive blood, have his ear sewn and get multiple stitches.

He got out of surgery around 6 a.m. and is expected to have two weeks of recovery.

“Once I got down to the residence that owns all those dogs, I thought he was dead, until he cried out,” said Darrel Archuleta, the grandfather of victim.

The family hopes this incident will encourage Fort Hall to adopt a dog ordinance to prevent tragedies like this from happening.

According to a news release from the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes on Monday, the dogs involved in the incident were killed and their remains sent to a lab for testing for diseases.

Tribal Fish & Game is putting out live traps this week to capture additional dogs that may have been involved. Dogs not on a leash in the Fort Hall limits may be captured and removed, so authorities are urging people to restrain their dogs for the next two weeks.

The owner of the dogs is out of the area, the tribes said.

The Fort Hall Police Department, Tribal Fish and Game and the FBI are investigating. All findings will be forwarded to the Tribal and Federal Prosecutor’s Office for possible criminal charges, according to the news release.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article gave an incorrect age of the child.