The police are still on the lookout for an abandoned pitbull that has been terrorising Cascade residents.Residents at Mon Repos Road said they fear for their lives because the dog has been loose in the community.Officers at the Belmont Police Station were up to late yesterday searching for the dog.The officers said they spotted the dog several times but it managed to escape in bushes when they approached it.Public relations officer Police Service, ASP Joanne Archie, said if members of the public see the dog they could contact the police.According to resident Karina Jeffries, the police shot at the gray pitbull last week, but it was not hit."We woke up to gunshots one morning," she said in a telephone interview, saying she was concerned about having random gunfire in a neighbourhood."The pitbull is still roaming the streets."
Another resident, Sylvia Clarke, said an attempt was made by a few community members to tranquilise the dog, but that failed as well, as it merely staggered away and hid, and then showed up again two days later.In an interview, chairman of the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation Nafeesa Mohammed said there is no equipment or budgetary allocation in place to deal with dangerous dogs roaming in the communities.The Cascade community falls under the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation."We are not equipped to deal with dangerous dogs," Mohammed said. "We deal with the stray dogs. A van with an attachment and net goes out and catch the dog when the complaints come in and take them to the TTSPCA."In terms of the dangerous dogs it requires a special structure and something to put them to sleep. I don't know the legislation that was passed last week, I don't have it on me. If there is a dog that is a provoking and is a danger the police can deal with it," she said.
Mohammed said there should be areas where dangerous dogs can be placed. "That is a machinery that is not put in place...I am not aware of any budgetary allocation to put in that system," she said.During a meeting last week Thursday when residents of St Ann's/Cascade/Mon Repos West met candidates for today's local government elections, Clarke raised the issue of stray pitbulls.
According to UNC candidate Denise Ann Robinson when she had inquired about the issue with an unnamed person from the corporation, she was told residents from that area were wealthy enough to deal with stray dogs themselves.Clarke said the TTSPCA said it was absolutely overwhelmed with the number of strays, and didn't have the resources to take on any more.Jeffries said the dog terrorises the neighbourhood, and parents could no longer allow their children to play outdoors for fear of an attack.Clarke added it was the third stray pitbull roaming the area in the past two months.