When Jacqueline Durand, 22, agreed to dog sit for a Texas doctor and his wife, she figured it was easy money. The doctor told her that his two dogs were very nice and were never aggressive, so the Texas college student agreed to the job. However, Dr. Justin Bishop was wrong about his dogs. The animals viciously attacked Durand, who has not been “permanently and catastrophically disfigured” because she lost “most of her face below her eyes.”
The doctor and his wife, Ashley, hired Durand to dog sit on December 23, 2021, while they were away from home. The doctor promised Durand that when she arrived at the house, the dogs would be locked up in their kennels. Unfortunately, this was not the case. When Durand arrived at the house, the dogs were roaming the property and went into attack mode, nearly killing the University of Texas, Dallas student.
Now, Durand has filed a lawsuit against the doctor and his wife. According to the suit, the dogs jumped on Durand as soon as she entered the home. Lucy, a German Shepherd, and Bender, a pit bull mix, launched into an attack as though they were trying to kill the young woman. Once she was inside the home, the dogs proceeded to tear off and eat Durand’s ears, nose, lips, and most of her face below her eyes.
The shocking attack occurred days before Durand’s twenty-second birthday. She had previously been to the doctor’s home to meet the two dogs and to get comfortable with their routine, so she could take care of the animals while the doctor and his wife were out of town.
Durand’s lawyers claim that she was put in danger because the dogs were not in their crates as promised. This failure on the doctor’s part allowed the dogs to roam freely and jump on Durand as soon as she entered the property.
“The owner assured Jacqueline that the dogs would be crated,” Durand’s attorney Chip Brooker said in a statement. “But, shortly before her first visit, the owner texted Jacqueline to tell her that she failed to crate the dogs before leaving town. A sign on the front door even warns visitors about the violent pets that live at the home.”
Evidence suggests that the Bishops knew that their dogs were dangerous. On the outside of their home, they posted a sign that said, “Crazy dogs. Please don’t knock or ring the bell. Call or text instead.”
The dog attack was so violent that it knocked Durand to the ground and caused her to drop her cell phone. The animals even went so far as to tear off all of her clothes, including her blue jeans, so they could get to the flesh underneath. Durand would have likely died from the attack of the Bishops’ dogs if a neighbor had not heard the violence and rushed to her rescue.
The lawsuit against Dr. Bishop could go to a jury trial, as Durand is seeking more than one million in damages.