New York Archives - i Still Love Dogs

Hero Pit Bull Alerts Authorities to Gas Leak

Home alone Wednesday afternoon, a senior Pit Bull named Sadie sensed that something was very wrong in her Westchester County, N.Y. house. She dug out a wooden block keeping a sliding door shut and ran outside, knocking down a fence as she bolted out of the yard.

Someone a few blocks away called the police when they heard Sadie’s incessant barking. When officers arrived, Sadie ran off and took them “through several streets, and then lead them back to the dog’s residence into the backyard,” Lt. Lawrence Rotta with the Tuckahoe Police Department told WABC.

The officers noticed the broken fence as well as claw marks and blood on the sliding glass door. They also noticed the strong odor of gas coming from the basement. The officers called the Eastchester Fire Department and Con Edison, which arrived at the house and confirmed a gas leak.

Sadie’s owner, Serena Costello, was at work and her 4-year-old daughter was with a sitter when a friend called her and told her about all the activity at her house.

Sadie “is our hero,” Costello told WABC. She said that in 11 years, her dog had never run away before. “It’s just so out of character for her to do. She saved our lives.”

Rotta agreed. “The dog saved the house from a potential gas explosion and gas leak,” he told WABC. “Natural gas inside the house can accumulate to the point where, God forbid, someone would come home and turn on a light switch, and there could be a potential explosion,” he told News12.

The police had to give Costello a summons for having an unleashed dog. But after ConEd determined there was a gas leak, one of the officers “took the summons and ripped it up,” Costello told WABC. The leak has been repaired.

Good girl, Sadie, and many thanks to WABC, News12 and CBS New York for covering this positive Pit Bull story.

Photo via @ABC7NY/Twitter

New York’s JFK Airport to Become Really Dog Friendly Next Year

January 2017 Update: The ARK Pet Oasis is now open.

When the $48-million The Ark terminal opens at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City next year, traveling dogs will be able to enjoy a bone-shaped pool, massage therapy, “pawdicures” and more in its 20,000-square-foot Paradise 4 Paws resort. They can spend the night in rooms with full-sized beds and flat-screen TVs.

There will be plenty of fancy amenities for cats, too, including a jungle with custom-made climbing trees.

“It will be a place for people who love their pets like they love their kids,” Cliff Bollmann, one of its architects, told Crain’s New York Business.

Along with pets, the 178,000-square-foot facility will be available for horses, cattle, penguins and other animals.

The Ark terminal, which is currently under construction, is replacing the VetPort, a kennel that opened in the 1950s. According to Crain’s New York Business, a report by the New York City Economic Development Corp. and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey found VetPort’s management to be “poor” and the facility “suffered from a location that insulated it from the traveling public for whom a large portion of its revenue … was targeted.”

Unlike the VetPort, The Ark will provide quarantine facilities for animals arriving from other countries. Previously, this required a two-hour trip to a federal quarantine facility.

According to a press release, The Ark will be “the world’s only privately owned, integrated air-freight center, in-transit animal handling modules, USDA-approved import quarantine, veterinary hospital, diagnostic laboratory, and companion animal boarding and grooming spa.” It’s anticipated to “effectively transform the air transport of animals worldwide.”

Construction is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2016.

More than 2 million pets and other animals are transported by air annually, according to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. About 70,000 of them will pass through The Ark each year.

The Ark “will be a place for people who love their pets like they love their kids,” Bollmann told Crain’s New York Business.

“Maybe more.”

Photo via Facebook

Hero Guide Dog Tries to Protect Blind Woman from Being Hit by Bus

JUNE 10, 2015 UPDATE: An awesome, unidentified benefactor is paying for all of Figo’s veterinary bills. More good news: Figo won’t have to wear a “cone of shame.”

“He’s a good boy and he’s leaving his bandage alone,” Dr. Angela O’Donnell of Middlebranch Veterinary told the Journal News today. “That points to the strides he’s making. If it was bothering him more, he probably would be chewing at it.”

Audrey Stone, whose life Figo saved, told the Journal News the dog “deserves the purple heart.” If you’d like to send her a card or note, mail it to Audrey Stone, c/o Trinity Lutheran Church, 2103 Route 6, Brewster, NY 10509.

The driver of a mini-bus apparently didn’t see Audrey Stone, who is blind, and her guide dog, Figo, walking across a street in Brewster, N.Y., yesterday morning.

Figo, however, immediately saw the bus coming toward them. He literally sprang into action and jumped toward the vehicle.

“I don’t know if (the driver) thought (Stone) was going to move faster, but it looks like the dog tried to take most of the hit for her,” Paul Schwartz, who witnessed it all, told the Journal News.

Both Figo and Stone were hit by the bus, but thanks to the guide dog’s heroic action, they are alive today. Stone suffered several fractures, and Figo’s right front leg was severely cut.

“There were 15 EMTs and people all around her, and the dog didn’t want to leave her side,” Schwartz said. “He was flopping over to her and she didn’t want him to get away from her, either. She kept screaming, ‘Where’s Figo?’ We kept telling her he was fine.”

Dogs are not allowed in ambulances, so after Stone was taken away to a hospital, Schwartz said the guide dog seemed kind of lost. Firefighters put Figo in their truck and took him to Middlebranch Veterinary, where he had surgery on his leg.

A staff member told the Journal News Figo was welcome to stay at the animal hospital “as long as Audrey needs before she takes him home.”

In an update on its Facebook page this morning, the animal hospital wrote, “All of us at Middlebranch Veterinary would like to thank everyone for the generous outpouring of well wishes for the service dog Figo. He is resting comfortably and recovering nicely from his wounds.”

Photos via Facebook, Twitter

Pit Bulls Rescued from Dog-Fighting Ring Save Family from House Fire

Last summer the Pruchnicki family of Farnham, N.Y., adopted Shrek and Fiona, two Pit Bulls that had been rescued as puppies from a dog-fighting operation. Early this morning, the two dogs, along with Ivan, the Pruchnickis’ other rescued Pit Bull, paid it forward by alerting the family to a house fire.

“It was about 3:30 in the morning. I heard the dogs going crazy.” Dave Pruchnicki told WIVB.

The house had smoke alarms, but the dogs started barking before they went off.

Shrek was the most vocal. “He was halfway up the stairs, and he usually doesn’t come up the stairs at all. You know he was telling us to get out,” Dave said.

“We went downstairs to look and see what’s up with the dogs. The whole front porch was basically engulfed.”

His wife, Dusty, grabbed their 5-year-old son and they all ran out of the house.

“As soon as we hit the side door, the front windows blew in and the whole house went up in flames,” Dave said.

The house was destroyed. “Our memories, our pictures,” Dusty told WIVB. “I’m just glad that I have my son, and my dogs and my husband, and we’re healthy and we’re happy and we can replace everything in our house.”

The fire started on the front porch when embers that had been discarded in a steel bin were rekindled, Chief Peter Chiavetta of the Farnham Volunteer Fire Department told the Buffalo News.

Dave and Dusty said that if the dogs had not been there, they probably would not have survived the fire.

“Like I say, we rescued them and they rescued us, so I think we’re even now,” Dave told WIVB.

Photo via Facebook

Want to Tattoo or Pierce Your Dog in New York? Fuhgeddaboudit

New York pet parents: Thinking about getting a heart tattoo on your dog’s chest with “DOGMOM” written across it? Or maybe a teeny, diamond bone stud for his pierced ear?

Of course you aren’t — and anyway, fuhgeddaboudit.

Today Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a ban on cosmetic tattoos and piercing for dogs, cats and other pets.

“This is animal abuse, pure and simple,” he said in a press release. “I’m proud to sign this common-sense legislation and end these cruel and unacceptable practices in New York once and for all.”

New York now joins Pennsylvania as the only two U.S. states to specifically outlaw pet tattoos and piercings, although intentionally inflicting pain on animals would likely fall under many states’ cruelty laws. Similar legislation is currently working its way through the New Jersey state government.

The New York bill was introduced in 2011 by Assembly member Linda Rosenthal. She was motivated to do so after she heard about someone in Pennsylvania selling “gothic kittens,” with piercings on their ears, necks and along their spines.

More recently, Brooklyn artist Alex “Mistah Metro” Avgerakis tattooed his dog and posted the photo (above) on Instagram. He claimed he did it while his dog was still unconscious after having surgery. In April 2013, Ernesto Rodriguez of North Carolina did the same thing to his dog. “Got bored, so she got inked,” he wrote in the description of a photo he posted on Facebook.

“People can choose to tattoo or pierce their own bodies, but their pets do not enjoy that same luxury,” Rosenthal said in the press release. “Anyone who would subject an animal to needless pain and suffering to make a fashion statement should be guilty of a crime, and with my law, they will now face stiff penalties.”

Violators of the ban, which goes into effect in 120 days, will face a fine of up to $250 and up to 15 days in jail.

Markings for identification are exempt from the ban, as are ear tags on rabbits and guinea pigs.

“I am pleased that the governor signed my bill into law,” Rosenthal said. “Doing so sends a strong message that this kind of behavior constitutes animal abuse and that it will not be tolerated.”

Photo via Instagram