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…
I agree with FSRQ and I also noticed that the dogs were not neutered. I can’t believe this guy actually just left his dog behind to be picked up by the pound. The dog will be put to sleep within 48 hours if he’s not adopted or claimed. It doesn’t matter that he wasn’t the one that bit the Spaniel.
Dogs cannot be off leash in city parks between the hours of 9am-9pm. Other times are ok in most parks.
I can’t see other dog walkers putting up with this if it happens all the time. They would run him out of the park. I would try to reach out to them and see if they know anything about him. You would see them there before 9am, like most law abiding dog walkers or you can try: http://www.fortgreenepups.org
How is the Spaniel? I don’t see where it says if he/she was harmed or not.
Ya know, a happy ending to this Christmas Tale would be if you went to the shelter and saved the “nicer” Pit. Just sayin’.
yoursmine: YOU are amazing
That sucks Brownstoner. You have to go to the ASPCA and report this incident. Give them a description and pictures and the time of day this happened. If you see the guy again follow him and see where he lives to make sure they are aware of his address. If you have that info then they can start a dog fighting investigation and they will watch the residence and eventually get him and remove the dogs.
Also go talk to your community affairs officers and tell them you are concerned about this and ask them to do something. Then, make sure you go to the police community board meetings and ask them what has been accomplished each month during the public meetings. It would be better if you go see them w/ your block association. It’s their job to address community concerns such as this.
You can also call 311 every time you see him w/ his dogs off leash – be persistent.
Lastly, you can get your local council person involved and/or the community board. Hope this helps.
only on brownstoner could a story about a dog attack become a story about race and gentrification. 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.
EDP?
The man is a EDP.
fsrq, your child/dog comparison is really spot on, and one I had not thought of before.
Pitbulls are not any more likely to bite or attack human than any other breed. Less likely than many breeds. They CAN be dog aggressive, which is why a responsible pit bull owner keeps their dog on a leash when in a public area with random dogs around. It saddens me that another lazy owner has allowed this to happen and we get a story about rampaging pit bulls. Heather is right, dog fights do occur all the time between all kinds of dogs, but as a pit bull owner you have to take extra responsibility so that this won’t happen. Rotts, Dobermans, etc. – there is always a fashionable “hard dog”, and right now it is the pit bull. A dog so known for its loyalty and gentleness that it was once known as the nanny dog. It is precisely their eagerness to please humans that allows them to be taken advantage of and trained to fight.
Brownstoner:
One scary Christmas story.
Years ago, while walking through the South of Market Area (SOMA) in San Francisco — these were the bad old days — there was a grey-haired guy with a couple of snarling pit bulls approaching me on an underpass. I quickly crossed the street, but then decided to do a little sociological investigation.
At a safe distance, I followed the group and watched it travel through some pretty rough blocks. They guy stopped at a corner store (with the dogs) and reversed course with his grocery bag. Every now and then, when approaching groups of men hanging around empty lots, he’d pull on his dogs’ leashes, making them bark and snap.
That’s when I figured he had them for his own protection. That may be the case of the owner here — a single man of a certain age, feeling vulnerable to attack in “bad old” Fort Greene.
No excuse for letting them run around to go after pets and people, although that may one way he feels he can claim space for himself. Fort Greene may have improved since the days he got the dogs, but the fringes, from what I understand, are still pretty tough places.
You did the right thing. But if he’s “an old guy from the neighborhood” he may have experiences that help him rationalize his behavior. And that the City doesn’t have a reasonable park/leash policy “enables” him.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue