Two stray dogs attack woman twice on the same day

Sri Lankan woman sustained bite wounds on the leg, arm and neck

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Courtesy: Dulanee Pereira
Courtesy: Dulanee Pereira

Sharjah: A Sri Lankan woman was severely injured after two stray dogs attacked her twice on the same day leaving her with multiple bite wounds in the leg, arms and neck and bruises all over her body.

Dulanee Pereira was walking her dog, Peaches, at around 6am on Sunday outside her apartment building near Al Nahda Park when two stray dogs attacked her and bit her hand and knee. Pereira was knocked off her feet because of the force of the attack and landed on the sand.

“One dog bit my left hand and the other one bit my right leg. I was wearing a pair of shorts which was torn up to the hip level,” Pereira, 39, told Gulf News.

Fortunately for Pereira, a street cleaner was nearby and helped her. But the dogs ran away.

After cleaning herself up, Pereira went to the hospital for anti-tetanus and anti-rabies vaccines. Six hours later, on her way back home on a different route, the same dogs that had assaulted her in the morning turned up and attacked her again.

“One dog jumped and bit my neck while the other one attacked Peaches. There were people around, but none came to help me,” she said.

Pereira grabbed a rock and hit one of the dogs to break free. Bleeding all over, she went to the hospital for the second time. Peaches was badly injured with two broken bones in her back limb.

Pereira alerted Sharjah Municipality which caught both dogs the next day with her help. Pereira said officials at the municipality informed her that there had been five other reports of stray dog attacks. The municipality, however, could not confirm the report.

“Any time we receive complaints from our hotline, we immediately form a team to monitor the vicinity and capture the stray dog,” Sultan Al Mualla, the municipality’s director general, told Gulf News. He said people should not hestitate to call the civic body in case of such issues.

Despite her condition, Pereira said the dogs were not to blame. “These dogs were like that because of our own fault. If humans took care of them, they wouldn’t have become this aggressive,” the dog lover said.

Animal welfare advocate Montserrat Martin, founder of rehoming organisation Friends of Animals Dubai, agreed with Pereira. “This problem has very little to do with the animals. The problem is with people who take dogs at four or five months then abandon them afterwards,” Martin said, adding that pets become feral as a defense mechanism when they get scared or if they get territorial.

Animal welfare advocates noted there has been a pattern of pets being abandoned in the UAE. Ras Al Khaimah Animal Welfare Centre in an earlier interview told Gulf News that more pets get abandoned when summer sets in. Martin, for her part, said they have been receiving reports of stray animals in industrial areas in Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain, and some areas in Abu Dhabi.

Martin called on government agencies in all the emirates to strictly implement Federal Law No 16 to protect the welfare of animals. Abandoning pets, she said, is paramount to animal cruelty which is a crime in the UAE.

One of the dogs thatattacked the woman.

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