A seven-year-old girl had to receive 25 stitches to her head on Monday after being mauled by an abandoned dog at her home in Carlsen Field. Kesha Cooper, a Standard One pupil, was playing in the yard of her home when the dog, a brown and white Rottweiler and German Shepherd mixed breed, attacked her. The T&T Guardian visited the home yesterday and spoke with the child’s mother, Allison Cooper, who said the animal was abandoned near their home and attacked Kesha without provocation.
“She went out in the yard to meet her brothers and the dog saw her and started growling. Her older brother put it out into the road and locked the gate. Somehow the dog managed to come back into the yard and jumped on her, biting her multiple times on her head.” The distraught mother recounted the horror she felt when she saw her daughter covered in blood and screaming.
“My nephew called out to me and I ran outside. When I saw her I started screaming as well; blood was dripping from her face and head, her clothes was covered in it.” Cooper said she tried to clean the blood off Kesha, but was even more horrified when she saw the extent of the damage. “Her skull was showing through the cut. When I saw it, I told my husband we have to take her to the hospital right away.”
Kesha was taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility, then transferred by ambulance to the Wendy Fitzwilliam Paediatric Hospital where she was treated and later discharged. Cooper said her daughter, who used to love dogs, was very confused by the attack.
“She loved dogs, she asked me ‘Mommy why the dog bite me up like this?’ It had her like a ragdoll, just flinging her small body back and forth.” She is calling on members of the public to more seriously consider the consequences of their actions.
“She could have died, in her own yard, where she is supposed to be safe. All because someone knowingly abandoned a ‘bad’ dog in the area. That dog was trained, it didn’t bite her anywhere but her head and face.” She is also appealing to the Chaguanas Borough Corporation to remove the scores of abandoned dogs and rubbish in the area.
“There are always dogs thrown like garbage in this area and we don’t see any dog catchers. People dump couches, fridges, stoves, anything and everything here (Carlsen Field) and it all goes unchecked. We would like the corporation to come in and remove these dogs and check on the illegal dumping in the area.”