A black man who had grown tired of the incessant barking of a dog that reportedly dislikes minorities was arrested Monday night after he slashed its face, police said.
The German shepherd lost an eye, and the suspect — who worked for an oil delivery business where the dog stood guard — was arrested on a felony aggravated cruelty charge. He also was charged with fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, a misdemeanor.
Andrew Owens, 58, was arraigned Tuesday in City Court after spending the night in jail. He admitted to the crime, police said.
“The dog reacts to black people, Hispanics, anyone who is not white,” owner Paul Tocco said. “She always barked at him. He (Owens) was well aware the dog didn’t like him, and he knew to stay away from her.”
A detective for the SPCA of Westchester said the slashing was unprovoked. It took place around 7 p.m. as the dog, a 4-year-old named Jenna, was leashed outside Valley Oil at 707 Nepperhan Ave.
Owens, who worked there as a handyman, had threatened to kill the dog in the past and told authorities it had bitten him about a year ago. Monday night, he “egged on” the barking dog and charged at her, Detective Ken Ross III said. Owens is alleged to have then brandished a 9-inch folding knife.
Owens is accused of taunting the dog with his arm, raising his arm with a knife and slashing the dog across the face, Ross said. The dog was cut “over the right eye, all the way down to the socket bone,” he said.
Tocco, whose family runs the business, said he heard the dog barking, went outside and saw Owens strike the dog.
“The dog let out a loud yelp, and when I ran there, she turned her head toward me and I seen the whole right side of her head bleeding,” Tocco said.
Rather than going after Owens, Tocco placed Jenna in a work van and drove her to a Greenburgh animal hospital. A veterinarian performed emergency surgery, but the eye couldn’t be saved, Ross said. The dog was transferred Tuesday to an animal hospital in Scarsdale.
“The dog is supposedly in good spirits and is OK now,” Ross said. “But it did lose the eye.”
The detective said he’s uncertain why the action was taken against the dog.
“He never liked the dog,” Ross said of Owens. “The dog did not bite him (Monday). It appears everything was done out of anger.”
Owens, who lives nearby, was arrested at his apartment at 10:20 p.m.
Tocco said he would never allow Owens to work there again. “We don’t want him around here anymore,” he said.
After an initial report about the incident appeared on The Journal News’ Web site Tuesday afternoon, Tocco said, he got bombarded by media calls, with many reporters asking about his dog’s attitude toward nonwhites. This upset him.
Tocco said he never trained Jenna to behave this way. He said he didn’t think it was fair to call his dog prejudiced.
“I never said the dog was prejudiced,” Tocco said. “I said it doesn’t like minorities. I think it’s unfair to the dog that you’re publicizing that she’s prejudiced.”
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In the first place, naming a dog Jenna will drive it crazy. Jenna is not a normal dog name. Were the dog’s name “Spot,” it would never have maliciously barked at that man and hurt his feelings.
Secondly, dogs are conditioned because of the type of people they are around. Black peoples’ dogs are not accustomed to being around white people. And vice versa.
However, a problem barker needs to be disciplied. For Christ’s sake, the man was delivering oil and had been there on many occasions. He shouldn’t have to be terrorized by a malicious dog. He handled it wrong. A few dog biscuits would have made a nice friend out of that dog. I have tamed some dogs who hated me with dog biscuits. One, I used fried chicken on!
Dogs are man’s best friend because they are like men. The key to a dog’s heart is through his stomach.
That man should carry a pocket full of dog biscuits with him, if he has dogs on his route.
I’d rather him have killed the dog than slash its face up. That’s so wrong.
Well, I hope the dog recovered and is happy. What else can I say?
It’s not color. Many whites would have abused that animal too.
Now here’s an ethical question: Do we murder an animal? or Do we call the dog pound to do it for us?
My Chinese friend had a dog who hated all white people. They didn’t train it to be that way, she was naturally that way. Maybe some dogs have weird color perceptors. :-D
Cherry picking stories simply for the color of ones skin is not productive at all. People of all shades of skin are involved in acts of cruelty. Be more responsible with your animals. Keep them leashed or confined in a shelter then animals of all makes and models are protected.
Seems to me Jenna is an excellent judge of character.
Well, first off, as a pet owner, I’m glad the dog survived that vicious attack. That guy is a outlandish jerk. Another point, my dog barks at Hispanic men. I think it’s because my dog associates them with loud gardening machines who come too close to my apartment window. So, in some way circumstances taught my dog to bark at anyone who looks like them. My final point, dogs know who are and who are not good people. It’s clear, based on that guys actions, that the dog was right on the money is sizing up the man.
Isn’t dogs color blind? How do you train dogs to bark at colored people? That’s like training animals to be racist. Stop these fabrication of racially inciting news stories. There are much bigger news that needs to be reported.
Tocco said he never trained Jenna to behave this way. He said he didn’t think it was fair to call his dog prejudiced.
Every dog I’ve ever had reacted this way towards non-Whites and I’ve never trained them to be that way. Everyone I’ve known, even Politically Correct morons, have said the same thing. It is asinine to say that a dog could even be prejudiced anyway, but such is the mind set of many people today. They have been so thoroughly brainwashed that they do not even realize that they believe the most outrageous crap.
If this is how your dogs behaved, it is because they felt your were being threatened. This is what dogs normally do, they will defend their master if they sense he is under some kind of threat. Dogs are very sensitive about this, and calling one ‘prejudiced’ for it is kind of….well, moronic.
savage black bastard go back to africa !
Teaching your dog only to furiously bak at colored or otherwise specific group of people count, because of the nature of dogbark, as a treath of physcal violence. Rest is up to your behaviour(teach the dog not to treathen people.
So the black man did absolutely correctly as current society does not yeat have other tools for removing this kind of dogs.
Yeat again I must press that our only way to remove bad colored people is by making it domestically.
Executing all heavy physicall violence griminals like rapists and heavy abuse people eather works or not. Equal law is only tool you will ever get. It migth differ in Chinese system but it is allready berfected in China and more you try it here more I must support Chinese system.
You can deport refucees but most of coloured people are allready above that. You will find that this law is needed anyway for western survival.
You are a griminal supporting griminal.
So so sorry.. :) :)