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 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…