A PREGNANT woman underwent emergency surgery yesterday to save her arm after she was mauled by three dogs.

Two of the dogs are mixed with the pitbull breed.

Kurleen Cooper, 36, who is five months pregnant, yesterday complained she was not feeling any movement in her womb after she was attacked by the dogs at Pt Fortin.

The dogs tore the flesh off her left arm and bit her on the head, hands, inner leg, left ear and stomach.

Cooper's family said they were told by doctors last night the surgery would attempt to reconstruct the damaged arm or amputate it. 

Cooper is the mother of three other children, aged six, seven and 17.

She was walking along South Central Road, Pt Fortin shortly after 8 a.m. after dropping her children to school and was heading back home.

She was passing a house owned by businessman Ronnie Maharaj when one of the dogs ran out from the property and charged at her.

Maharaj buys and sells fish and was said to have acquired the dogs after he was robbed a number of times.

The two other dogs, which are mixed with the pitbull breed, followed and leapt on Cooper and knocked her down.

The dogs bit Cooper about her body, and the pregnant woman fought back, she told relatives.

Cooper's sister, Kurlet Cooper Julien, said: "She told me that she was fighting back. She told me when she got the bites, she actually bit one of the dogs. She was kicking the dogs. Because she was kicking, they bit the inner part of her legs."

Police were told that the dogs were "called off" by one of Maharaj's employees.

Cooper was rescued from the roadside by a passerby and residents from the area, who contacted the police and the Emergency Medical Services.

She was rushed to the Point Fortin Area Hospital for treatment, where her wounds were bandaged and she was given a tetanus shot.

She was later transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital and her condition was listed as "serious". 

"She told doctors that she is not feeling the baby. They checked and there was movement, but when she came to the hospital, she said she felt something was wrong with the baby. The family is traumatised. I wouldn't even wish this on my worst enemy," said Julien.

The dogs were loose in the yard, and there is no gate installed to the front of the house, according to an employee of Maharaj who was at the Point Fortin Police Station assisting investigations yesterday.

However, June Garib, Maharaj's wife, said when she left for work at 5 a.m., the three dogs, along with three others they own, were chained at the back of the house.

"When I came home I saw the dogs tied. I asked if anyone let go the dogs and they said 'no'. I don't know if it's my dogs that bit the lady."