'Killer Husky' Controversy Erupts in NYC, Pet Owners Livid with Allegedly Dangerous Dog
It sounds like the plot of a B movie — a killer dog terrorizing Central Park as the individual assigned the role of the villain sneers at the victims.
But it is a slice of real life in upscale Manhattan, according to the New York Post.
The accusations swirl around a Siberian husky named Charlie, owned by a man identified by the Post as Matthew Stock.
Owners of dogs that have been attacked at the park claim Stock lets his dog run free, resulting in attacks on other animals. Stock claims he currently keeps his dog leashed, but does not deny that it once ran free and killed other animals.
The attacks date back to August 2018, according to Deidre Bailey, who said her chihuahua, named Belle, was killed by the larger dog last year.
“You go to the park for a walk and you come home with a box. It’s been an emotional nightmare,” she told the Post, saying that her dog was shaken by the husky .
“It cornered my dog and shook her like a rag doll three or four times,” she said.
Stock did not deny the 2018 incident.
“What happened last year was a tragedy, and ever since then we’ve been very careful to keep him on leash,” he said told the Post.
That has not happened, said Elizabeth Graham, who said her miniature dachshund, Lulu, ran up $25,000 in veterinary bills after being attacked on Aug. 12.
“We need to get this dog off the streets,” she said. “If in one second he was able to do this to Lulu, can you imagine what he could do to a child?”
Graham’s friend, Victor Mejia, was walking her dog that day, and outlined his version of the incident to the Post.
“Lulu made a little bark, and the husky went straight at her and attacked. I pushed the [husky] in the stomach to get rid of it, and grabbed her,” he said, claiming the individual walking the husky was “frozen.”
“[Lulu] had a tube in her neck for oxygen, the flesh was twisted, she was very black and blue and she had staples in her stomach. It’s a miracle she’s still alive,” Graham told the newspaper.
Stock and the individual who walked the dog that day told the Post that it was the dachshund that approached the husky. They said the husky was leashed because it had killed animals, including “several raccoons.”
Stock has offered to pay for the dachshund’s medical bills, but has so far only paid a small bit of the overall tab.
“I don’t have that kind of money. What I paid was a good effort,” he said.
After his critics posted flyers warning about the dog, Stock called himself the victim of a “smear campaign” painting him as the “villain of the Upper West Side.”
“It’s harassment. I feel terrible about what happened … this is just too far. [Charlie’s] not a command killer dog,” he said.
A Twitter post captured the “killer husky” story.
Locals living in fear of killer husky in Central Park https://t.co/Y4KnqPTuSI pic.twitter.com/oGxMIo42e4
— New York Post (@nypost) October 5, 2019
New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has weighed in on the matter. It sent Stock a warning saying his dog’s “history of aggressive behavior … poses a risk to public safety.”
Whatever the truth is about Charlie, there’s no doubt that a dog is capable of doing a great deal of damage, whether to other animals or to humans.
Charlie the husky now has to be leashed and muzzled at all times and complete a training program, both of which Stock said he will do.
If he does not, according to the Post, he will have to surrender the dog.
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