Ali­cia Llanos

Pit­bull at­tack vic­tim Jill-Ann Jerome wants harsh­er penal­ties met­ed out to ir­re­spon­si­ble pit­bull own­ers.

Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, a ban­daged and teary-eyed Jerome said there ought to be harsh­er penal­ties against pit­bull own­ers whose dogs have se­vere­ly wound­ed mem­bers of the pub­lic. Jerome was at­tacked by two pit­bulls on Wednes­day night just a few hous­es from where she lives at Pe­tit Bourg.

She says she was re­turn­ing from a store close to 6.45 pm when two pit­bulls be­long­ing to a fam­i­ly in the area at­tacked her. Jerome said one dog latched on to her right arm and the oth­er on to her left bo­som. Neigh­bours came out and tried to as­sist her, but could not get the two dogs off of her. Jerome said even­tu­al­ly a mo­torist drove in­to one of the dogs, caus­ing both of them let go of her and flee.

She said she was tak­en to a near­by health cen­tre where her wounds, which cov­er most of her left chest, were treat­ed. Jerome lodged a re­port with the San Juan po­lice. She says the keep­ers of the dogs told the po­lice that the dogs were nei­ther in­sured nor reg­is­tered and be­long to their son who was not around. Jerome claims the own­ers of the dogs do not have an en­closed yard and al­so have eight oth­ers.

She said one of the keep­ers told her he could not af­ford the $250 worth of an­tibi­otics she had to buy to treat her in­juries. Since the at­tacks the han­dlers have moved the dogs to an­oth­er lo­ca­tion and have been steadi­ly avoid­ing her. She says she has not heard from the po­lice and is en­raged by the en­tire sit­u­a­tion. Jerome feels harsh­er re­stric­tions and en­force­ments need to be in­tro­duced in the con­trol of pit­bulls.