“I feel like I didn’t ask for this. So, I think that it’s time to show who I am now, and I can’t be scared of it,” expressed Jacqueline Durand, 22, who was the victim of a savage attack by two canines she was going to take care of.
Although dogs can be people’s best friends and great companions in the home, they must be trained never to act aggressively towards other people. Therefore, when caring for a canine, families must take responsibility for their pet’s actions.
This is of great importance, because in case a dog is not trained to be around more people or has violent behavior, it could result in a case as delicate as that of Jacqueline Durand.
This young woman from Coppell, Texas in the southern United States ended up with her face completely disfigured and at risk of dying after the two dogs she was taking care of brutally attacked her.
Durand agreed to take care of a family’s dogs two days before Christmas and one day before her 22nd birthday last December. The owners had promised her that the two most aggressive dogs, Lucy, a German shepherd mix, and Bender, a boxer/pit bull mix, would be caged. However, that wasn’t the case.
She had met the canines on a previous occasion, and they seemed calm in the presence of their family. However, when she went to take care of them, they both immediately jumped on her, leaving her with serious injuries all over her body, especially on her face. “I thought I was going to die,” Durand told CBS News.
Police had to wait about 37 minutes before reaching Durand because the canines wouldn’t let them into the Bishop family home. The young woman was rushed to a trauma center because she had lost 30% of her blood. However, the family claims that the dogs have never been aggressive before.
“I have three kids. One is three years old. No history of violence. None,” Justin Bishop, the dogs’ owner, told police.
However, his statement is contradictory to their own sign outside their property, which says their dogs “are crazy” and that it’s preferable to call on the phone before disturbing the animals with the doorbell.
“The warning on the front door to me suggests that the owners knew that both of these dogs had acted aggressively to people arriving at the front door,” said Chip Brooker, attorney for the young victim.
“We suspect the Bishops knew that. We suspect everybody who came across these dogs, particularly Lucy, knew that,” Brooker said.
Meanwhile, Durand is learning to accept herself with her new disfigured face after miraculously surviving the savage attack. Although it’s a painful process, she’s not ashamed to show her face.
