Untamed Dogs Rip Apart Pet Yorkie
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. (CBS 2) -- One minute, a Westchester County couple is walking their pet Yorkie, the next minute they're attacked by a pack of wild dogs. Now the Yorkie is dead and the couple is crestfallen, demanding answers.
Deanna Young and her fiancée Eric Coleman watched in horror Sunday as their beloved dog, Biggie, a three-year-old Yorkie, was brutally killed right before their eyes.
"Just devastated," said Young. "He was like my child."
Young was walking Biggie on South 4th Ave in Mount Vernon across from an auto shop when the Yorkie was attacked by a pack of wild dogs, including a rottweiler and a pitbull.
Young said six large mixed breed dogs came bursting through a gate, which she thought was closed. According to her, the dogs just pushed it open, ran across the street and attacked – as she held Biggie in her arms.
"They were just totally going after the dogs," she said. "Trying to get at the dog. And then I finally had to let him go and move out of the way. I was terrified."
Minutes later, Biggie's neck was broken, and he lay dead.
CBS 2 tried to find the owner of the auto shop, but employees told CBS 2's Scott Rapoport that he wasn't in on Monday.
Police say, however, that he has been issued 18 citations for failing to have licenses for the dogs, failing to leash them and failing to provide sustenance – specifically clean, available water.
"They had water at the location, but it was dirty," said Sgt. Gregory Addison of the Mount Vernon Police Department. "It didn't seem like something they could drink."
Shop employees say they are very sorry for the tragedy, and that what happened was a mistake.
"Somebody came inside and left the gate open," said employee Ceford Grant. "Somebody who wasn't supposed to come in left the gate open and the dogs ran out."
A mistake? Perhaps. But it doesn't matter to Young.
"Somebody should be responsible," she said. "This should not be allowed to happen again."
The dogs from the auto shop are currently being kept at the Mount Vernon Animal Shelter.
