The owner of three pit bulls, which are suspected to have mauled a man to death and injured two others at Leonora, West Coast Demerara on Thursday morning, has surrendered to the police, while members of the community yesterday complained that previous reports to the authorities about the animals had been ignored.
Acting Commander of ‘D’ Division Leslie James yesterday told Stabroek News that the owner of the dogs, Marceline Basdeo-Small, surrendered to the Leonora Police Station yesterday afternoon. Police had been unable to locate the woman after the discovery of a dead body with wounds, suspected to have been inflicted by the animals, on Thursday.
James noted yesterday that the identity of the dead man remains unknown. He is said to have been called “Boxer.”
Two other persons, Ramanand Bhikam, 62, of Stewartville Housing Scheme, and Wilbert Adams, of Cornelia Ida, also on the West Coast, were injured in separate pre-dawn attacks by the animals on Thursday.
Bhikam, a security guard, had related to this newspaper that he managed to escape with minor injuries after he armed himself with a cutlass and fended off the dogs.
Adams, he said, who is an employee of the Guyana Sugar Corporation’s Uitvlugt Estate, was hours earlier circled by the dogs and had to use a piece of wood he pulled out from a fence nearby to shield himself from suffering further injuries.
Residents of the community yesterday noted that there were many other instances where persons were attacked by the pit bulls.
As a result, they called on the authorities thoroughly investigate the attacks. Several complaints were made before, they said, while lamenting that police only seem to intervene until after a life is lost.
“This thing happening for years and the owner don’t concern about the community. People made a lot of reports,” a resident, Harriram (only name given), said.
He explained that he lives five houses from where the persons were attacked and many times he himself had to run for cover from the dogs. “Sometimes we does sit outside and when we see the dogs we does have to go in our yards,” he noted, while recalling that only three days ago a relative of the owner was attacked and had to be rescued by villagers.
“Many many times we does have to save people in here and nuff people animals get killed in this place. We have made so much reports and police did nothing. They wait until someone died,” Harriram said.
Another resident, Kaminie, also recalled making a complaint before. “I went and give a statement and when I came back I see her [the owner] out the house with lawyers and her father and brother. I see her walk on the street with them but she didn’t speak with me,” she said, while also calling for an intervention in light of the many attacks by the animals.
