Upper East Sider whose beloved border collie was mauled by pit bull owned by ‘repeat offender’ calls for hotline to support responsible pet owners
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An Upper East Side law school student says her dog was viciously mauled by a pit bull that is a known “menace” in the neighborhood — and is calling on the city to do more to protect responsible dog owners such as herself from “repeat offenders” like the pit bull’s owner.
Zaira Rojas, 28, said she took her almost 4-year-old border collie, Barrett, to Ruppert Park on Feb. 24 — just like she does every Saturday to play fetch and do tricks — when he was suddenly accosted by the aggressive pit bull and almost died in her arms.
Barrett was just taking a quick bathroom and water break from their game of fetch and was standing near the bushes when the pit bull approached. The two dogs got into “what I usually call a scuffle,” Rojas told The Post.
“I managed to separate Barrett and had gotten him to sit down in front of me, and I was holding his neck, making sure he was more or less fine,” she recounted.
“While I was doing that, the other owner was behind me, presumably holding back his own dog.”
But soon, she said the pit bull managed to get loose and ran back toward Barrett to continue their fight — pushing him into the back fence and leaving the border collie lying on his side.
“At the time, it looked like the other dog had gotten a hold of the back of Barrett’s neck,” she said.
Rojas desperately tried to hold onto Barrett, whom she said has been by her side through law school and a divorce, while the other unidentified dog owner held onto his dog as it maintained its grip on Barrett.
“For two to three minutes — honestly, it felt like an eternity — I’m holding Barrett and the other owner is failing to get his dog to let go of Barrett,” Rojas said.
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 whimpering. I keep telling him he’s going to be OK, but truthfully in my mind I thought, ‘I think Barrett might die. I think this dog is going to kill my dog.’”
The stand-off only ended when a good Samaritan offered to help, and splashed water on the pit bull’s face — causing him to let go, Rojas said.
“I immediately grab Barrett and hug him and he sits up and I start patting him trying to see if he’s OK,” she said.
“I see his fur is covered in saliva and what looks like blood, but it’s super light, and he’s letting me pat him so I think he’s OK.”
Rojas then turned to talk to the pit bull’s owner “but by then, he’s gone.”
“I was at this point shaking, and truthfully felt like I was having an out-of-body experience and wasn’t sure what to do next,” she said.,
“But what I just kept thinking is, ‘I don’t want this to change Barrett.’ I didn’t want Barrett to start feeling afraid of the park or of playing fetch or of other dogs,” she said.
“So we stayed for about 30 to 45 minutes, continuing fetch. I really wanted him to not even remember what happened to him.”
But Barrett can no longer spend any “meaningful” time outside as he continues to recover, Rojas said.
He has already had to get an abscess formed from the pit bull’s teeth marks drained and was put on antibiotics and a light sedative — which he has been on for more than two weeks now.
Rojas is now trying to track down the irresponsible pet owner, whom she called a menace in remarks to Upper East Site.
She tried reaching out to community groups on both Facebook and Instagram and received responses from others who have had bad experiences with the dog, she said.
One person said the pit bull bit him in the leg while he was trying to rescue his own dog from the menace’s clutches, while Maya Haber wrote that the owner even tried to tell her an attack is only going “too far” if the pit bull is about to kill “as if it’s just something that happens out of the blue,” according to comments seen by The Post.
Another dog owner, meanwhile, wrote that the pit bull owner “always says the dog ‘plays too rough,’” but still continues to bring him to the dog park and barely watch him.
“My dog has been attacked twice (thankfully nothing too serious) and the owner is never even in the vicinity to grab his dog, both times a third person had to run over and help me and my dog, and now my dog is reactive towards big dogs,” the owner wrote.
Rojas has since contacted animal control, who told her there was nothing they could do about the dog, and is planning to file a police report, she said.
But she said what would really help is more support from city officials.
“I don’t think there’s currently a good way for dog owners to get the help and support about what to do in these situations,” she lamented.
She said the city should create a hotline in which people could report incidents with aggressive dogs and “have something done about repeat offenders.”
Rojas also suggested that dog parks should require obedience training or “training in proper dog play.”
“Oftentimes, I’ve found people just don’t think that the way they’re training is a problem, or rather that there’s a lack of training,” she said.
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