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…
Denton you likely know nothing about dogs – a trait shared by many here.
1. Attacking another dog – does not “foretell” attacks on children or people. Pitbulls have been bred to fight OTHER DOGS – and NOT ATTACK PEOPLE. Therefore it is relatively common for a Pitbull to not be dog friendly – and it is UNCOMMON for Pitbulls to attack people.
Yet Pitbulls will attack people sometimes – why? – well look at the morons (including the guy here) who “own” them. Their inherent strength and toughness (against other dogs) – encourages morons to get them – bred them – encourage all the wrong behaviors – and then abandon them (since many of the idiots who get them are totally irresponsible anyway).
Look at the dogs in the picture – not fixed (got to make sure we have more abandoned Pitbulls), clipped ears, apparently not well trained -> Do you think these dogs were taught proper behavior to animals or people????
I venture to say if you looked at a large % of Pitbull owners (the people who buy/breed) and did a comparison of the outcomes of their children vs. their dogs – the children will prove to be more unstable, more dangerous, and more damaged then the dogs.
all this a long way of saying – its generally not the breed – its the people.
I don’t think the man is homeless but obviously a little off his rocker. Who would let a pitbull run around without a leash? Obviously one of the dogs is prone to attacking b/c he went for the neck of the spaniel – thank god it wasn’t your niece!
Are you people insane? This is a pit bull. It can kill a grown person in seconds.
I find it absolutely ridiculous that anyone thinks we’re supposed to just put up with dog attacks.
Well, the guy sounds ‘cracked’, and it is crazy to have a dog off the leash in the city, especially near other dogs or children. I’m very sorry it happened.
But I have to say it is interesting listening to other people impressions and responses.
1. Pit bulls are nice dogs.
2. There are no bad pit bulls, only bad owners.
1+2 = nice Christmas fairy tale.
Frederick, PEP only harasses dog owners with non-threatening breeds that look like they have money to pay the fines. They don’t bother kids (or adults) with fighting aggressive breeds that actually attack dogs or people. That would be too dangerous.
It certainly is sad that the dog he abandoned, and that ended up at the pound, was not the one who did the biting. We made sure the cops taking him in knew that. One of the onlookers noted to us afterwards that both dogs had numerous scars all over them. Also very sad.
If the guy were white or asian, he’d still be a lunatic and I’d still assume he was a bum.
His skin color is about as important as the brand of loafers that he’s wearing.
Not much else to say? Except perhaps next time this happens, the poor victim – whether dog or small child – may not be so lucky. Mind-numbingly selfish and insane behavior.
Sorry for your experience Stoner. You did exactly the right thing. Wish the cops actually did something.
An onlooker said he was “an old guy from the neighborhood,” said he thought he lived in the projects (as in, not homeless) and added some commentary that we won’t print here that didn’t give the impression we were dealing with a particularly level-headed person. He wouldn’t engage in any kind of discussion and was obviously unwilling to take any responsibility or, as we requested, to have his dogs checked (at the time we did not know whether our mother-in-law’s dog had been bitten or whether any people had been bitten in the melee). the park ranger said he was a regular and expressed her frustration at people disobeying leash laws.