By Gus Saltonstall
A violent dog attack took place Saturday on the Upper West Side.
Penny the chihuahua was walking on Saturday evening with her co-owner on Columbus Avenue at West 85th Street, when she was attacked by two pit bulls, according to one of her two co-owners, Lauren Claus, multiple eyewitnesses, video evidence, and the police.
“Penny passed them on the side of the sidewalk, and one of the dogs lunged at her,” Claus, an Upper West Sider, told West Side Rag. “The owner sort of grabbed his dog back when he did that, and in that moment, the brown female dog on a different lead [leash] lunged at my dog, and the person holding that dog dropped the lead and ran away, so that dog had full free rein to attack my dog.”
Claus’s ex-boyfriend, who was walking Penny at the time, was — along with nearby good Samaritans — eventually able to wrestle the 10-year-old service dog out of the jaws of one of the pit bulls.
The two people with the dogs that attacked Penny then got into a car and left the scene, Claus and multiple eyewitnesses told the Rag.
Penny’s owner rushed her to a hospital for immediate surgery.
“She’s doing much better,” Claus told the Rag about Penny. “They’re saying it’s a miracle. They’re saying she was really lucky. There were so many people there to help and take care of her, and get her away from the violent dogs.”
“She is still recovering in the ICU, she has injuries that took over two hours of surgery,” Claus added. “She is very badly bruised and on a lot of pain meds.”
When Claus reached out to the police about what had happened, NYPD informed her that dogs are considered property within the city’s legal system, so when a dog attacks another dog, it becomes a civil issue, and thus not something that police handle.
NYPD confirmed to West Side Rag the “vicious animal” attack on Saturday and stated that at least one woman was also bitten by the two dogs, and that an “unknown individual” pushed a man who tried to help the situation.
City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who let local residents know she was looking into the matter on Sunday, confirmed the same issue about turning to the police in the hopes of holding the pit bull owners accountable.
Brewer also mentioned that she believes the same two dogs fatally attacked a different dog earlier this year in Central Park.
When asked what Claus would say to the owners of the attacking dogs if she got the chance, she struggled to find the words.
“I don’t think I could say anything rational right now. I am incensed,” Claus told the Rag. “If they didn’t care in that moment, I don’t think anything I could say would make them care now.
“The police won’t do anything, because it’s a civil matter,” she continued. “There is nothing in the law that we can fall back on. Nothing to hold these people accountable. We are trying to get the dogs off the streets, but we’re not sure if that’s going to work.”
Claus created a petition titled “Hold Pit Bull Owner Accountable for Dog Attack” in the hopes of imploring local authorities to take action against the dog owners and possibly look into new laws that would include dog attacks within it.
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