By Gus Saltonstall
The owner of the two pit bulls that attacked Penny the chihuahua on the Upper West Side at the beginning of May has been ordered to hand over his dogs to police or face the possibility of jail time, according to legal documents filed this week.
The court order on Tuesday from New York’s Supreme Court follows a motion filed earlier this month against Joseph Columbus by Lauren Claus, the owner of Penny, and Lauren Block, the owner of two shi tzus that were also attacked by the two pit bulls earlier this year in Central Park, according to the court.
“Failure to turn over the male dog, known as Rambo, and female dog, known as Zooey…to the New York Police Department by 6 a.m. on June 10, 2025, but no later than 5 p.m. on June 10, 2025, may result in fines, or imprisonment, or both for contempt of court according to law,” the legal document reads.
City Councilmember Gale Brewer’s office confirmed to the Rag that Columbus did not turn in his dogs on Tuesday, and his whereabouts are unclear.
The ruling from the judge this week to hand over the pit bulls to police comes after Columbus was given a court order in March of 2025 to muzzle his dogs after they attacked Block’s dogs in January in Central Park, which resulted in the death of her shi tzu named Grover, according to court documents and as reported by Fox 5.
“His dog tore my dog apart as people screamed and cursed,” Block told a room of Upper West Siders at a town hall organized after the attack on Penny.
Despite the order, “the Defendant (Columbus) made no effort to muzzle the two dogs after the January incident,” read Tuesday’s court notice.
At a June 4th hearing, the judge ordered Columbus to turn in his dogs to police that week, but he did not.
Columbus then appeared in court on Monday with his lawyer who said they had been confused about the court’s order to turn in the dogs, and the court then again ordered the pit bulls to be given to police by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, according to Fox 5 and court documents.
Columbus’ lawyer also told the court on Monday that his client had never gotten the order to muzzle his dogs, Fox 5 reported, adding that Columbus declined to give his own comment.
While there is not an immediate pathway to criminal charges when a dog attacks another dog in New York City, Columbus is now facing the possibility of criminal penalties or jail time due to his refusal to follow the court orders, which results in a person “being held in contempt.”
You can read the full ruling by the judge on Tuesday — HERE.
Please check back in for updates.
Read More:
- Vicious Dog Attack on Upper West Side Puts Chihuahua Into ICU: ‘I Am Incensed’
- Dogs That Attacked Penny the Chihuhua on the UWS Will Remain in Owner’s Custody for Now: Town Hall
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I hope these dogs can be transferred to Best Friends or similar (which, for those of you who don’t know, is the sanctuary that rehabbed a bunch of Michael Vick dogs, and is set up to allow aggressive animals to be kept in safety). It’s obvious where the problem lies: the owner.
Good. In the endless debate of bad dogs vs bad dog owners, oftentimes it’s both.
The ornery are dreadful. Privikeged, selfish, thoughtless.
You name your pit bull Rambo? You ain’t raising a lapdog.
That’s a pretty strong hint that it’s the owner, not the dog.
This would have been taken care of already in Nassau County.
Good news!
Just so I am clear here. So the NYPD and the good old UWS progressive crowd will swiftly go after a dangerous dog (and rightly so btw), but will stand by and protest when ICE tries to go after dangerous illegal criminals. Go figure the priorities here… If only the poor dog had been from Venezuela.
You are so out of touch and out of line that I believe you need an adjustment. ICE isn’t going after “dangerous illegal immigrants”! They jumped in a US Senator today, and yes he was a Hispanic, so he got we he deserved? ??? You are seriously delusional and trying to draw a parallel is ignorant at best.
Just curious if it had been the other way around, a year ago, with a republican rudely interrupting a government official from the biden administration. Would you feel the same way? Stop playing politics, its exhausting.
Did you actually watch what happened? He came to a press conference uninvited and started interrupting it, shouting and yelling. Nobody forced him to do that. So yes, he deserved what happened to him. Who cares if he was hispanic, black, asian or white.
What are you talking about
Oh don’t mess with the cheap labor. You’ll have WSR insurrection on your hands in the comments.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
— Martin Niemöller
Jerome, I wish you only good things in your life, and that one day you find it in your heart to have empathy for other human beings who might have a different background from you. I wish for you that one day you find a way to have empathy for your neighbor who is Venezuelan, who is not a criminal, and who, just like you, wants to live a good, honest life.
Yes, immigration needs to be dealt with — but in a humane way, and that’s not what is happening at the moment. People are being targeted just because they look like a minority — Black, Hispanic, Indian — or foreign. They have followed the rule of law. They have done everything immigration has asked from them to stay in the USA legally. They are being detained when they show up for their regularly scheduled appointments at immigration, without due process, which is enshrined in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.
These are mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, neighbors. These are members of your community. ICE is breaking up families — with no mercy, with no care. How would you feel if this happened to you or someone you love?
Not all Americans are bad people. Not all Venezuelans are bad people. Putting people into boxes only divides us. There are bad apples everywhere — from all nationalities, all colors, and all races.
May you be safe.
May you be free from inner and outer harm.
May you be healthy.
May you be happy.
May you live with ease.
May you be free from anger, pain, and suffering.
May you be filled with peace, joy, and loving-kindness for yourself and others.
Thank you for that. I’m not sure I would have been as patient or kind. The statement made by Jerome shows either he’s messing with people or he’s incredibly ignorant. To compare a pit bull to a human being as if they are the same is disgraceful. Trump is dehumanizing people especially immigrants as if they are dogs-in fact less than dogs. This is the moral downfall of our time. Decent people are being scapegoated and disappeared without due process, many who followed the rules. And being compared to rabid dogs.
Agree 100%
“First they came for Trump.
He won the election.
They were stopped
Now they are coming for Jerome”.
– OPOE
Illegal criminals? Honestly, have some compassion.
Nope, my compassion for these undocumented people was gone years ago. Sorry, my heart isn’t bleeding like yours.
I guess you have never had the pleasure running in to them yet to experience the hell they put our neighbors through on the block.
All of a dog owners who live in this area are always on the lookout for them as they are consistently harassing the neighbors and children from the nearby schools and tourist with their mean angry aggressive pitbull
dogs.
Parents are terrorized by them always looking out for them to avoid them. They walk down other side streets with their children to avoid them.
The owners are a danger and a menace to our society as well as their two dangerous pitbull’s who are not ever muzzled!!!
wow you must love fox and all the false equivalencies they shove down your throat that you seem to swallow with glee.
You do not have to watch Fox to have an opinion on the matter. I do not want my city to spend more billions on migrants. Sorry if you disagree with me, its ok. https://abc7ny.com/post/watchdog-questions-high-cost-sanctuary-new-york-city/16122940/
In this case the dogs are proven to be violent. i dont subscribe to the notion that everyone from Venezuela is an illegal dangerous criminal per the imagination of TACO..
And TACO must live rent free in your head. Immigration laws existed before him. Change the laws if you disagree with them.
Such “dangerous” “illegal” “criminals” as:
Leonardo Garcia Venegas?
Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez?
Peter Sean Brown?
Jose Hermosillo?
Julio Noriega?
Jensy Machado?
David Huerta?
…?
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/tracking-us-citizens-children-detained-deported-ice-trump-updates.html
.
Wow, all this happened in the UWS, I didn’t know. But thanks for sharing.
That is correct! The UWS is a very tight knit community and always has been. We have learned from the past. We protect each other as neighbors and the community. There’s no other community in the five boroughs as tight as the
(UWS ) Upper West Side.
There are tighter communities out there that actually don’t put themselves out as liberal then screw people over.
Oh, you meant to write “when ICE tries to go after dangerous illegal criminals in the UWS”? Somehow, your phrasing led me to conclude you meant “when ICE tries to go after dangerous illegal criminals.” Decent folks care about such abuses wherever they may occur.
May we take it that you believe the people cited in my list below all qualify as “dangerous illegal criminals”?
tell us then about all the dangerous criminals that ICE has saved us from on the UWS?
Leonardo Garcia Venegas – released within hours
Juan Carlos Lopez Gomez – born int rh US but didn’t speak a word of English to explain his situation- released immediately
Peter Sean Brown – recycling the news from 2018?
Jose Hermosillo – According to DHS, “Jose Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson Arizona stating he had ILLEGALLY entered the U.S. and identified himself as a Mexican citizen.” Released
Etc.
Etc.
Maybe if you hadn’t been advocating for open borders who let in many criminals, they wouldn’t be in this situation.
but white collar crime is okay. storming the capital is okay. the criminal administration is okay.
Did I say any of it is ok? Please don’t manipulate other people’s words.
Here’s you big opportunity: IS any of it okay? Some of it?
I was hoping they had been correctly domiciled.
Those menacing female grad students in their twenties with their op-eds! Boot leather tastes good, eh.
This Jerome character thinks we should all just take cabs instead of improving accessibility to the subway AND thinks ICE are ~cool guys~ Hmmmmm…
My detective skills are sensing a… HIGH NET WORTH and… LOW tethering to the lived reality of their fellow New Yorkers… A NY Post lover? Worse, a Fox News loyalist?
A pity that you can’t help these people a) not fear displaced people who speak languages they don’t understand with darker skin than theirs or b) appreciate that both the immigration they complain about AND their position in the world are a consequence of economic policy that has benefited only them at the expense of destabilizing the south (NAFTA, earlier CIA doing full-on coups or sowing chaos in South and Central America, etc.).
~le sigh~
Colbert really got it right with truthiness, didn’t he?
Not sure who Cobert is ?
But to the best of my knowledge Jerome is not in power of any South/Central country.
Please direct blame towards them.
Please be more respectul and attack ideas, not character.
It does not bode well for the exchange of ideas.
Enjoy losing more elections. Your comment only reinforces why people vote for Trump and MAGA.
Stop making sense.
It upsets people.
LOOOLLLLLL that last line is a classic. You won the internet today.
We can devote so much attention to the safety of dogs because the city is literally the safest it has ever been – “from January 2025 through May 2025, New York City experienced the lowest number of shootings and murders in recorded history”
https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/pr010/nypd-record-low-shootings-murders-the-first-five-months-2025
What is the police supposed to do with the dogs?
NYPD has no facility for animal care.
They will be euthanized.
What do you think!
There’s no room in our society for these type of aggressive inappropriate behavior and not trainable Pitbulls.
The owners trained them this way, and brought the worst out of them.
Both these owners should be jailed and evicted from their apartments.👎
NYPD does not euthanize animals. Could you imagine the uproar if it killed those dogs. The judge hasn’t passed the death sentence on those dogs. The dogs owner should be prosecuted for criminal mischief felony.
Are the owners trainable?
Not now, it’s way to late…
There adult dogs, They’ll remember everything since they were eight weeks old and how they were treated by these horrible owners, soon these two owners will meet their maker.
It’s very very sad that this has happened to these dogs on how they were treated and trained. The owner should be arrested and they should serve time for what they horribly did to these dogs.
My question was:
Are the owners trainable?
In other words, how will they be punished. Will they be allowed to have dogs again? Etc.
reply to Rosebud: 100% agree.
Vicious dogs cannot be rehabilitated. Their aggression might be dormant for awhile, but then something sets them off unexpectedly—sometimes years after rescue—and they bite a child’s face off because they don’t like the way it smells. They need to be put down and the owners held accountable. A vicious dog is not the same thing as a trained guard dog that attacks on command. Apologists are wasting their breath.
The enthusiasm for killing things…
Oh ,please. These vicious animals kill other animals, people, children! This is not enthusiasm for killing–it’s the complete opposite.
This is slow progress. Too slow.
Guessing that the dogs would’ve already been peaceful eternal custody if Mr. Columbus had been jailed pending their surrender.
Justice deferred………
I’m glad to see that some sort of the progress is made. However I’m not sure what it means – a step towards euthanising the dogs or holding their owners accountable? To me it is not about the dogs but their owners. People like Mr. Columbus prefer to own aggressive bread to manifest their power and control. If the court finds Mr. Columbus unaccountable but simply puts the dogs down, it is not justice. He then can get more dogs and continue harassing people and the neighborhood.
Any news on the new Absolute Bagels?
I gots to know.
Thank you and have a BLESSSED day.
Good question.
Any update?
He didn’t comply. Didn’t answer door or wasn’t there all day and didn’t answer phone. The judge said yesterday she will put him in jail if he doesn’t surrender dogs today.
“The owner of the pit bulls has until 5 p.m. on Tuesday to turn his dogs into police.”
So as well as being an irresponsible dog owner he’s also a magician?
Good one.
The Dog owner of these Pitbulls must be responsible for its dogs for any reason!
Training and socializing pets is crucial for their well-being and for ensuring positive interactions with people and animals. Behavioral issues are a significant reason for pet surrenders to shelters, highlighting the importance of this responsibility.
Pitbulls should not be allowed and should be banned socialize amongst the public due to many safety issues.
These dogs (Pitbull breed), due to their dangerous aggressive strength and potential for very serious injury’s even deaths of people and animals, pose a threat to the heightened risk if involved in incidents.
Pitbulls should be banned to protect your children from City Street’s and City Parks.
Pitbulls are not inhehrently vicious. My niece has one (along with another dog and two small children) and she is the sweetest girl I’ve ever seen. They got her from a rescue two years ago and she loves people and other animals, including cats. Please don’t paint an entire breed with the same brush. Dogs reflect their owners.
Absolutely, they can be wonderful dogs.
This is great news. How about the dogs are taken away and the owners are jailed. Playing dumb should not defer justice.
And it is truly scary how there is an increasing number of MAGA posters with their Fox News propaganda. They are so angry and hateful. What has happened to our country?
And I’m sure I will get a snarky, nasty response rather than something intelligent, reasoned, and not loaded with Fox-speak.
Thoughts different from your own can be scary sometimes. It’s ok words and thoughts are your friend. You are in a safe place.
Is Lauren Claus related to Santa Claus at all?
Stop making me laugh.
What happened after 5:00 Tuesday? Is there an update?
the guys on video pulled the hair of a person at the scene and dragged him across the ground. how was he not arrested for assault?
Hopefully the owners have moved the Dogs out of state. I can’t believe so many seemingly normal people want to kill these dogs.
Kill the dogs before they kill me. Pretty simple. If I had more faith in the humanity of the owners I might feel differently. But these are not normal, kind people. They are evil. It is very sad that they have done this to these dogs, but it likely cannot be undone. If there is something that can be done so the dogs can be alive and do no harm to others, that would be ideal. But it likely is not possible at this point.
Dogs are out of control. In buses, in the subway, stores, on extension leases while their owners stare at their phones. Dog owners need to be cited. And stores that allow them.
A cop warned me about dogs — even small ones. You never know what might trigger a dog. Please keep your dogs to yourself — when you’re walking your dog, keep it next to you — after all, you’re the one who ‘bought’ the ‘unconditional love’. So many people would prefer a dog-less NYC, but unfortunately nobody speaks up.
Jan, So many people would never want a dog less New York. And I am speaking up for the thousands who would agree that dogs are our best friends.
There’s this lady Sonya Shaykhoun on the UWS who is on twitter who wants dogs banned in cities. She even went viral once.
It’s about time. Finally, the correct outcome. Maybe these dogs can be saved by re-training back to being loving and lovable dogs.
Columbus is claiming no one came to his home yesterday.
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=b2iCsQT7jOQro26lAtD9YA==
But Penny lawyers (and reality) say otherwise
https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docIndex=1ybI96RV0rcZjPa8mj_PLUS_YOg==
Mary Swears and Mollie Swears. What the…?
Joseph Columbus and his companion were reported to have unleashed his dogs as they began the attack. Significant prison time and very high fines for him would be toward some justice. Prevent him from repeating his viciousness.
Solid laws need to be put in place to protect our dogs from vicious ones. What we have is not enough. A dog is not property- a dog is a family member. Fix this and keep our precious dogs safe for once and all.
Any further update? Your reporting on this has been excellent. It has been 48 hours since something was supposed to happen. Let us know. Thanks!
Big surprise – Joseph Columbus did not show up to his hearing today. His lawyer told the judge he is in the hospital and that they both are being harassed by the media. The judge then issued a warrant for Columbus’ arrest until his contempt of court hearing for not surrendering his dogs. Thats’s set for Tues, 6/17, 2:30.