Grisly NY dog attack inspires new bill ‘Penny's Law' to hold negligent pet owners accountable
New York dog owners would be held criminally accountable if their dog harms another animal under a new proposed state bill — which advocates say would close a legal loophole and help get justice for mauled pooches.
'Penny's Law,' introduced by Assembly member Jenifer Rajkumar this week, seeks to create criminal offenses for careless owners — including 'cruelty to animals through negligent handling of a dog' and 'leaving the scene of an animal attack.'
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4 New York State Assembly member Jenifer Rajkumar introduced 'Penny's Law' this week.
Stephen Yang
The new bill is named for 16-pound Chihuahua pup Penny, who was attacked by a pair of pit bulls on the Upper West Side Saturday.
The 16-pound pooch was left with multiple puncture wounds after the ambush, in which one of the dogs also bit a woman who tried to rescue the pup, PIX11 reported.
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The same pit bulls are believed to have killed a dog in Central Park earlier this year while the dogs were illegally off leash, Rajkumar's office said.
The state legislation would also impose harsher penalties for those who repeatedly violate city leash laws.
'This lack of accountability has permitted numerous dog owners to allow their pets to attack other dogs,' she added. 'The same owners will allow the behavior repeatedly, often dismissing it as 'playing' or 'a dog being a dog.''
4 16-pound Chihuahua Penny was mauled on the Upper West Side by two pit bulls last week.
Instagram/directorchick27
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The weekend attack left Upper West Side locals fuming, prompting a town hall attended by hundreds of concerned locals Wednesday.
City Council member Gale Brewer, who is drafting similar legislation at the local level, confirmed at the meeting that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is investigating Penny's case.
'[From] East Harlem to Brooklyn, there are people who came from all over the city there … because they have the same concern: somebody has dogs who attack other dogs and nobody does anything about it,' Brewer told The Post. 'The agencies try, but they operate in a silo. We need to have everyone working together.'
Dogs are considered property under state law, and police often don't get involved unless a human is attacked or a human owner participates. State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal is separately seeking to change that by pushing a bill to swap the 'property' classification to 'sentient beings.'
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4 Callie, a beagle, attended a town hall on Wednesday night on the weekend mauling of Penny the Chihuahua.
Helayne Seidman
Penny's tragic case is far from isolated, Rajkumar's office added.
On Thursday, a dog and person were injured by an illegally off-leash dog at Riverside Park, whose owner fled the scene. Roughly 1,300 reports have been made to 311 regarding off-leash dogs this year alone.
A German shepherd that mauled several dogs and killed one on the Upper East Side struck again last summer after its owner said she planned to put it down. Rajkumar's own staff member was attacked twice by the same dog, including once in which the attacking dog was illegally off leash.
Last year, The Post exclusively reported the case of an unlicensed dog boarder who is still operating despite at least three dogs being killed by raging mutts while there, according to grieving owners.
4 Jurga Stankeviciute-Evans (pictured), who is allegedly running an illegal dog boarding business in South Slope, Brooklyn.
Gregory P. Mango
'Everywhere I turned, I was told there's nothing that can be done,' lamented one of the tragic Brooklyn dogs' owners.
A rep for the NYPD told The Post at the time that 'harm or death to an animal caused by another animal is not a criminal matter.''
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