New Yorker whose dog was attacked by pit bull wants hotline for responsible owner

Metro

by melissa koenig

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An Upper East Side law student claims his dog was severely injured by a pit bull known as a “menace” in his neighborhood, and is suing the city to protect responsible dog owners like himself from “repeat offenders.” They are calling for further action to be taken. Like a pit bull owner.

Zyla Rojas, 28, took her almost 4-year-old border collie, Barrett, to Rupert Park on February 24th – just like she does every Saturday to play fetch and tricks. He said he was suddenly attacked by an aggressive pit. She held the bull and it almost died in her arms.

Barrett had just taken a quick bathroom and water break from a game of fetch and was standing near a bush when the pit bull approached. Rojas told the Post that the two dogs got into “what I would normally call a scuffle.”

“I managed to pull Mr. Barrett away and had him sit in front of me. I held his neck and made sure he was mostly okay,” she said.

“While I was doing that, the other owner was behind me, probably holding his dog back.”

But soon, she said, the pit bull managed to loosen up and ran back towards Barrett to continue the fight, pushing him into the back fence and leaving the border collie on his side.

“At that time, the other dog appeared to grab Barrett by the back of his neck,” she said.

Rojas desperately tried to hold on to Barrett, who had been by her side through law school and through her divorce, but the other unidentified dog owner said she was still holding on tightly to Barrett. He was clinging to the dog.

“I held Barrett for a couple of minutes, which honestly felt like an eternity, and the other owner was unsuccessful at letting the dog go,” Rojas said. Told.

She described how she tried to plug the pit bull's nose, but “he didn't even flinch.”

“At this point I'm really starting to panic,” she said.

“Barrett is crying. I keep telling him he's going to be okay, but in my heart I was honestly thinking, 'Barrett might die.' I'm afraid this dog will kill my dog. ”

The confrontation ended when a good Samaritan offered to help, poured water on the bull's face and released it, Rojas said.

“I immediately grabbed Barrett and hugged him and he sat up and I started petting him to make sure he was okay,” she said.

“His fur is covered in saliva and what looks like blood, but it's very light and he lets me pet him, so I think he's okay.”

Rojas then turned around to talk to the pit bull's owner, “but by then he was gone.”

“At this point I was shaking and honestly felt like I was having an out-of-body experience and didn't know what to do next,” she said.

“But what I kept thinking was, 'I don't want this to change Barrett.' I didn't want him to go to the park, play fetch, or be scared of other dogs.” she said.

“We stayed there for about 30 to 45 minutes and continued playing fetch. I really don't want him to even remember what happened to me.”

But as Barrett continues to recover, Rojas said she will no longer be able to spend “significant” time outdoors.

He already had to have an abscess removed from the pit bull's teeth and has been given antibiotics and mild sedatives, which he has been taking for more than two weeks.

Ms Rojas is now trying to track down irresponsible pet owners whom she called a threat in statements to the Upper East Site.

She said she reached out to community groups on both Facebook and Instagram and received responses from people who had bad experiences with the dog.

One person said a pit bull bit him on the leg while his owner was trying to save his dog from a threat, but Maya Haber said the owner said the pit bull's attack could only go “too far.” He wrote that he even tried to convey his feelings. According to comments obtained by the newspaper, he tried to kill her “as if something suddenly happened.”

Meanwhile, another dog owner wrote that even though the pit bull's owner “always says the dog plays 'too rough,'” he still takes his pit bull to the dog park and mostly keeps an eye on him. .

“My dog ​​was attacked twice (fortunately nothing too serious). The owner wasn't even close by to catch the dog. In both cases, a third party Had to run in and help me and my dog. And now my dog ​​is reactive to aggression. “It's a big dog,'' the owner wrote.

Rojas then contacted animal control, but was told there was nothing they could do about the dog, so she planned to file a police report.

But she said what would really help is more support from city officials.

“I don't think there's a good way right now for dog owners to get help and support on what to do in a situation like this,” she lamented.

She said the city should create a hotline where people can report incidents involving aggressive dogs and “take action against repeat offenders.”

Rojas also suggested dog parks should require obedience training, or “proper dog play training.”

“I've noticed that in many cases, people don't think there's anything wrong with the way they're training, or rather they think they're not training enough,” she says.