via GoFundMe campaign
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Lauren Claus describes her Chihuahua, Penny, as her “best friend.” Now, Penny is now in the ICU at BluePearl after a gruesome attack on the Upper West Side.
Claus shares custody of Penny with her ex-boyfriend, who was walking her on Saturday in front of Viand (at the corner of Columbus and West 85th Street) when the attack occurred. Security footage from the restaurant along with videos from bystanders show the violent attacks.
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“Unprovoked, the dog turned and lunged at Penny,” said Claus.
The footage shows two pit bulls going after Penny as bystanders scream and try to free her from the dogs’ grip. The video also shows several people attempting to separate the dogs while their owners seemingly stand by. One woman was allegedly bitten while trying to free Penny, and others were reportedly shoved by the pit bull owners. At one point, one of the owners allegedly threw a bystander’s phone and pulled another bystander’s hair.
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Once they were able to free her, Penny was rushed to the BluePearl animal hospital and was in surgery for hours. “She’s in a lot of pain, she’s in stitches from head to toe,” shared Claus. Penny is a 10-year-old rescue dog, and Claus’ emotional support animal, originally from Puerto Rico.
“They think she was a street dog, so she’s definitely resilient,” says Claus.
via change.org campaign
After the attack, the owners of the pit bulls can be seen walking off. Claus posted to the Upper West Side Dog Club Facebook group to warn other owners about the incident. Members and bystanders from the attack came together to share video footage, the owner’s license plates, and detailed accounts of the incident.
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The group members are rallying together to bring justice to Penny. When asked how the community can help, Claus urged people to sign the Change.org petition she made for Penny to bring further attention to this incident and hold the owners accountable.
“They’re giving me the run-around,” said Claus.”I started at NYPD and they told me to go to Animal Control, Animal Control told me to try the ASPCA. I reached out to the ASPCA and they sent me back to NYPD.” She went on to explain that the NYPD Animal Cruelty Division saw the videos. “They said to me verbatim, ‘We watched the video and see no crime being committed here. This is a civil matter.’”
Claus says she “will be taking all the legal avenues and actions” she can to try to bring justice to Penny. A GoFundMe campaign was created by Claus’ current boyfriend to help raise funds for Penny’s vet bills and potential legal fees.
Councilwoman Gale Brewer released a statement urging the NYPD to look into the attack further. Brewer and Claus are hosting a community meeting Wednesday, May 7 at 4 p.m. at Goddard Community Center (593 Columbus Ave) to try to raise awareness and NYPD support.
Have a tip or more information? Send to justiceforpennyclaus@gmail.com.
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The owners of the pit bull threatened me last year when I asked them to curb their dog after they walked on. When I say threatened, it was with extreme violence and I needed to run home. I didn’t report it as I had no evidence etc. but I recognize them now.
This is traumatic just to READ about. I can’t imagine what poor Penny and her owners are going through. Council Member Gale Brewer is to be commended for reporting this incident and standing up for citizens.
Omg! The police need to investigate because they can be part of a dog fighting ring. The owners are irresponsible, and again, maybe part of a dog fighting ring. Are police going to step in after someone is killed??? And the owners of the other dogs just walk off!! WTH!
We should never allow this type of behavior from people. These people have no personal accountability for their dogs or themselves. What type of person would do nothing and just walk away from this horrible violence? I hope that these people are held accountable. I am horrified to have read this, and I am so sorry for Penny and her owners.
If this is what those dogs do to another dog walking by, I can only imagine what they would do if a small child walked by too fast or something! This is so scary.
When there is a dog to dog confrontation the police do nothing. It is only if the dogs bit a human. Terrible situation.
Time to outlaw pit bulls in NYC. There is no reason to allow dangerous animals in a densely-populated city. They should be banned and euthanized nationwide.
Those dogs are obviously a danger to people as well — one of the bystanders said they were bitten. Absolute lunacy that the police are doing nothing.
The dogs are also clearly unneutered, which can lead to higher aggression levels from them and from other dogs who aren’t neutered towards them. A reminder to always spay and neuter your pets.
That is actually false and research bears out that it is a myth. . Neutering does not affect aggression except for aggression between males IF a female in season is near.
Gang banger wanna be’s shrouded in layers of spongy fat unable to control their VIOLENT ATTACK DOGS BRED TO KILL must be severely fined, then PUT DOWN WITH THEIR DOGS.
The city of Miami banned pities from entering the city limits. Attacks were way down.
NYC MUST BAN THESE DOGS from our streets.
I can hear those fat unattractive toad owners singing how peaceful their dogs are.. but here’s the proof!
PUT THE OWNERS AND THE DOGS DOWN!!
The same thing happened to my labradoodle between Amsterdam and 92nd last year. My wife was taking my dog home from the vet (for an eye check) while pushing the stroller with our baby daughter, and a pitbull literally jumped on my dog, ripping the skin from the rear back leg. Needless to say, my dog doesn’t care about other dogs but just about people, so this was 100% unprovoked. Nothing can be done when a pitbull is assaulting your dog: they are too big, aggressive, and strong. The owners, despite my yelling at them, walked away, pulling their hoods on. I know where they live, I took pictures of them and the dog, and called the police. Unfortunately, the police told me it was a civil matter and they couldn’t do anything about it. Luckily, my dog perfectly recovered in about 7 months (even if she still has big scars), after taking her back and forth from the animal hospital on 59th and York and paying about 12,000 dollars in bills. Honestly, I don’t even know if keeping the owners financially accountable would solve the problem. In my case, seeing where they live makes me understand that they definitely don’t have (declared) money so I would have not seen a penny, but just the attention of people you don’t want to deal with (the cop told me this!). It’s been a nightmare, but luckily it’s over now. Not all the pitbulls are bad, but a lot of them are and it’s all about how they were raised.
The owners did nothing to help? In fact they attempted to hinder? I wish that the dogs would be taken from the owners and the owners fined and imprisoned, but any punishment has to be pursued by the victim (the chihuahua’s owner) and it’s a hassle and a pain in the neck. But please! Do it. These dogs attacked a dog this time, but they will attack a small child next time, and these subhuman owners will have the same reaction. Remove them – both the pitbulls and their subhuman owners – from civil society.
Just so you know, there is NO correlation between aggression to other dogs and aggression to humans. They are all tragic situations but there is no relationship between them.
Why does everybody in NYC need to have a dog? I don’t like it when people tell me how their dog would never bite anybody. A cop told me you never know what might trigger a dog. Wish it wasn’t considered rude for me to keep the dogs away from my body. There’s no getting through to dog owners’ brains/hearts.
There are so many irresponsible dog owners and they absolutely should be held accountable. There is one guardian who also has two untrained, large dogs on West 79th that pull and lunge at every single dog. It’s terrifying to see him try to keep his grip on the one leash holding them both and I’m not sure what horrible event their guardian is waiting for before he realizes he isn’t doing those dogs any favors. They can get only limited exercise and he clearly doesn’t have the expertise to train them. Obviously, he doesn’t care about anyone else on the block or their pets.
It’s ALWAYS a pitbull! Do not let people own these animals!
I was under the impression that it was indeed a crime to injure a domestic pet and then “hit and run” as it were, as these dog owners did.
I guess I was wrong. It should be.
It certainly should be a crime to walk away after your pet injures a person.
The police may not help you with the issue of the dog attack, but find the Good Samaritan that was pulled off the dog by the owner. He can file a complaint for assault. You may not be able to get them for Penny, but you can make them pay another way.