ASPCA gets calls to save life of NY dog thrown from 6-story building as euthanization looms

Clock ticks down for lucky NY dog, a cause celebre

NEW YORK — Animal welfare activists and pet lovers Friday demanded that a dog that survived being thrown off the sixth-story roof of a Brooklyn building this summer be allowed to live.

After months of working to rehabilitate the 1-year-old, brown-and-white pit bull mix named Oreo, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it planned to euthanize her because of her unpredictable aggression.

But that reasoning was rejected by hundreds of people across the country in e-mails, calls and Twitter messages to the ASPCA. At least one pet sanctuary in New York offered to take in the dog.

“The aggression thing is a dumb excuse because all dogs can be worked with,” said Emily Danks, a self-described animal rescuer who said she was escorted out of the ASPCA’s building on the Upper East Side after trying to convince staff members to let her take the dog.

“I was just like I can’t let this dog die,” she said, adding that she had planned to take it to Pets Alive, a sanctuary in Middletown that had offered to take in Oreo.

Protesters also rallied outside the building early Friday morning.

Matt DeAngelis, executive director of Pets Alive, said his organization had left phone messages for the ASPCA with an offer to take in Oreo. But he said they had not heard anything.

“We’re giving them another route to take the dog rather than kill the animal,” he said. “I’m perplexed at why they wouldn’t take it.”

In an e-mail, Stephen Zawistowski, one of the ASPCA’s lead animal behavior experts who had worked with Oreo, said the organization doesn’t believe that sanctuary placement “is good for her welfare.”

“We made this decision having the experience of working with a number of well-known sanctuaries and rescue groups,” he said, adding that ASPCA was unfamiliar with Pets Alive as an organization. “If Pets Alive would like to be a resource in the future, we can arrange an inspection and vetting process.”

DeAngelis said his organization had been around for 30 years and had experience dealing with aggressive dogs like Oreo.

“It sounds to me like the ASPCA is determined to kill this dog,” he said. “I would invite the ASPCA to put down the needle and give us a call.”

ASPCA spokesman Andy Izquierdo said the agency had received well over 200 calls and e-mail messages by mid-afternoon, as well as at least two death threats.

“People don’t know the behavioral piece,” Izquierdo said. “We could fix her physically, but we couldn’t do anything with her psychologically. That’s what people are grappling with. They are not aware of her unpredictable aggression.”

The ASPCA said officers responding to calls June 18 of a dog having been beaten and then thrown off the roof of a building at a Brooklyn housing project found the animal on the ground. It had two broken legs and a fractured rib.

Fabian Henderson, a 19-year-old who lived at the complex in the borough’s Red Hook section, was arrested on felony charges. He pleaded guilty Oct. 20 to aggravated cruelty to animals. He is to be sentenced Dec. 1.

There was no phone listing for Henderson at the Brooklyn building. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.