A two-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after he was mauled by a large dog. The attack happened last week on the Bloodvein First Nation, northeast of Winnipeg.

The boy’s mom said one of the bites almost pierced the boy’s skull.

“He was just covered in blood. His whole head, his face, his upper body,” said Victoria Johnson. “When I think back on it, it’s hard. I get emotional thinking about it.”

Last week, her two-year-old son Jason was playing with his brothers in their yard. That’s when Johnson’s husband heard a loud scream coming from outside.

She said a neighbour's dog that was on a leash attacked her son.

Jason was taken to the community’s nursing station and then flown to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg for treatment.

His mom said the bite on the top of his head was so deep, surgery was needed.

“The one on his head was two centimetres deep and they were saying if it went in just a little bit more, it could have (gone) right through his skull,” said Johnson.

She said her son is healing and is meeting with a plastic surgeon on Friday and needs to get a rabies shot as well. While her son was in hospital, he also had nightmares about the dog attack.

She said the dog that mauled her son had attacked others on the First Nation.

The RCMP put the dog down. Johnson said there is a problem with wild, aggressive dogs roaming in the community.

The Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter said it has taken in stray dogs from First Nation communities.

It says preventative measures are needed.

"The root of the problem is if we had more dogs spayed they would not be breeding and having these puppies…growing up in the wild, starving to death and having to fend on their own,” said Carla Martinelli-Irvine from Winnipeg Pet Rescue Shelter.

Victoria Johnson said she wants the First Nation to do something about the number of wild dogs because she’s afraid to go home.

“I’m scared to walk to my mom’s to go visit her. Dogs will try and attack you. It’s really bad,” she said.

The chief of the First Nation said there is a problem with wild dogs in the community and with owners not looking after their animals. He said the band is considering a cull, which he calls a last resort.

- with a report from Jeff Keele