A Christmas Tale
Christmas was going swimmingly until we decided to head out with the cousins and mother-in-law to Fort Greene Park around midday to get some air. We were at the top of the hill near the monument with three of the kids when we heard some barking and screaming. We ran down the hill towards the…
Christmas was going swimmingly until we decided to head out with the cousins and mother-in-law to Fort Greene Park around midday to get some air. We were at the top of the hill near the monument with three of the kids when we heard some barking and screaming. We ran down the hill towards the commotion, picking up a stick along the way. Turns out a man we’d seen earlier sitting on one of the tennis nets using the courts as his personal dog run for his two 100-pound pit bulls had decided to keep one of them off the leash as he walked through the park. Passing our four-year-old niece, mother-in-law and her Brittany Spaniel who were sitting on the bench near the big rock, one of the pits, the female off-the-leash one, went straight for the spaniel’s neck. After we all jumped into the fray and managed to pry the pitbull off the spaniel’s neck, the unapologetic owner took off towards the Willoughby exit. We followed while calling 911. The owner eventually got the both dogs on a leash. When we caught up and told him to wait there while the police came, he proceeded to take both dogs off the leash again and took off over the hill towards Myrtle Avenue. One dog—the one that had attacked—followed him; the other seemed lost and confused and lingered near the Willoughby entrance until the cops came a good 10-12 minutes later. The one moment of comic relief came when the cops were whistling through their PA system to try to keep the dog around the car until the van could show up to take the dog to the pound. We showed the cops these photos of the owner and they said it was not their job to go after him; instead, they said, Animal Control has their own cops that had to do it. When we got back to the house later and called 311, however, they said Animal Control would only arrest an owner whose dog had bitten a person. So now there’s an irresponsible owner who lets his pit bull roam free and no branch of law enforcement will track him down. That makes a lot of sense. Ideas?
More photos on the jump…
These dogs are definitely not Pitbulls. Mastiff or Cane Corso/Mix(Not Pit).
The gentlemen used to regularly take the dogs to the park, late evenings(10-12 pm). He’s not part of the doggie possie that hangs out on the main lawn. He usually walked the loop from the tennis park to the hospital, around to the Myrtle side, past the bathroom, down past the benches, to the rock and back to the tennis courts.
While walking my dog, I had a chance to speak with him and he is nice softspoken gentlemen. There is also a younger man who sometimes walks the dogs and he is more out going. According to him, they’re cane corso/mastiff mixes.
Anyway, they’ve got to be at least 6-8 years old and are at the end of the lifespan. Being put down may not be the worst this for this dog.
Actually claude – there LIKELY Pit Bulls – real Cane Corsos are rare and really expensive – so probability says Pit (not to say that someone didnt sell the dog as a Corso) – and there is no way to tell from these pictures if the dogs are Corsos or Pits as Pits come in so many shapes and sizes that distinguishing them from a (similar looking Cane Corso) is impossible in this case.
And there not Neapolitan Mastiffs – since they dont have the loose skin.
Mr B we are very sorry to hear this and hope your dog is okay. We were just our @ the park for quick run earlier today and it was really quite empty and peaceful.
This dog owner is either an absolute idiot or a sociopath. We don’t think he is homeless at all just a mean old scum with zero morals. Mr B handled it appropriately but personally it wouldn’t have been wrong to teach him a little lesson. Sorry folks but some morons just don’t learn the civil way.
jamesdoron are you being serious with that comment? “Of course Brownstoner’s experience with a dog in the park is just a codified parable about white supremacy played out in the property market. Of course it is.”
NOP you are an inspiring guy always finding the positive in every negative. Thanks for that story for you may very well be right but we doubt it since this vermin unleashed the other dog after the initial attack.
those aren’t pit bulls. those are probably cane corsos. this is why the “pit bull” debate is ridic.
LOL, white people are funny. while you are a renter and you see a black person living next to you who owns their brownstone you call them homeless people because they are black.
If the cops did find the guy what were they supposed to do? You can only issue a summons for a dog off the leash, if you personally observe it. If the guy says, that’s not my dog, but a stray that I was trying to rescue, can you prove it isn’t? As far as I know, there is no summons you can issue dogs for fighting each other (yeah, I know, the mastiff started it, but if you ask the owner, what is he going to say? It’s not like Spaniels have never started fights, growing up, the most protective dog I ever had was a cocker who would bite you for looking at him sideways). Rh brought up a good point, I doubt that this guy, who seems very comfortable in the park has had many problems, or the other dog walkers would have run him off long ago.
You can’t have it both ways, civil liberties, probable cause, etc. or police state. Yeah it sucks when you’re on the receiving end, but it’s still way better than the alternatives. As far as all the hysteria? It’s a dog spat. Geeze people, get over it
Mshook said:
“Pitbulls are not any more likely to bite or attack human than any other breed. Less likely than many breeds.”
BTW, where is pitbull Rob today?
There was a long article in the New Yorker not too long ago about pits. I’m surprised no one has quoted it yet. The article made the same claim, and in fact stated that dachshunds are sixteen times more likely to bite humans than pits.
The funniest thing was next week in the letters. A writer said he’d rather be bit sixteen times by a dachshund than once by a pit bull.
1. There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.
2. Guns don’t kill, people do.
First of all those aren’t Pitbulls, they are Neapolitan Mastiffs. The are generally very well tempered. Nothing like pit bulls.
You say that the dog went straight for the Brittany Spaniel’s neck. I guarantee you that if a pit did get a hold of the the dog’s neck it wouldn’t be walking away. Second, I doubt you would have been able to pry a locked pitbull’s hold.
Savage pitbulls on the loose in FG Park makes for a good headline, but is far from the truth. The reality is that dogs get bitten by other dogs in the park all the time. Sorry to here about the in law’s dog being bitten, but this type of incident is far more common than you’d imagine.
Do you honestly think it’s the police’s job to track the perp down? Is that an efficient way of allocating our resources?
Now if a person was bitten it would be a different story.
Two things i like to point out.
This is the only post for today, so consider it an Open Thread. We’ll be back online again Monday. Have a great Christmas!
I thought you was not posting anything until Monday.
Brownstoner: This Blog is for the restoration of Brownstones.
Now we have after Christmas: A Christmas Tale
You you see why I have hatred and disgust for you Brownstoner. The poor little white dog being attacked by the big bad black Pitbulls, Awwwwwww.
I wonder why the owner of those Pits was silent? Maybe there is more to this story, Brownstoner.
A nice Race/Class Covert story for this holiday season! Lets get those hits up and inflame more hatred between Black and White people. The sad thing is we only got one side of the story and I wish those Pits went for you!
Oh BTW I’m not going back and forth on this crap and 2009 is days away…. Oh wee!
The What
Someday this war is gonna end…