By Julia Shipley
This past Sunday, on the anniversary of a violent dog-on-dog attack that went viral on social media, Upper West Side City Councilmember Gale Brewer stood on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 85th Street – where Penny the chihuahua nearly died – and told a crowd of concerned pet lovers about her new legislative package.
There have been at least seven documented dog attacks on the Upper West Side over the past sixteen months, where one dog (or in some instances a pair of dogs), without provocation, violently attacked another, often resulting in severe injuries, five-figure vet bills, and — in some cases — death, according to dangerous animal reports collected by the NYPD 24th Precinct’s Crime Prevention Officer Sarah Frankel.
According to Frankel, in six of the seven UWS instances, the aggressor dogs are still at large. Frankel says that is due to the current unenforced dog laws in the state, a dearth of police officers trained in filing dangerous animal reports, and the lack of punitive means to hold the owners of aggressive dogs accountable for the injuries and fatalities their canines inflict.
None of the injured parties received financial compensation from the aggressor’s owners for their pet’s medical bills, according to the victims.
Brewer’s new legislative package, which was formally introduced at a city council meeting on March 26th, includes four bills tackling dangerous dog issues and “responsible pet ownership.”
The first bill, which Brewer’s team refers to as “the Sarah Frankel Bill,” will require the New York Police Department to designate an animal cruelty liaison officer in every precinct. Currently, the Upper West Side is home to the only active NYPD officer formally trained in filling out dangerous dog reports — the 24th precinct’s Sarah Frankel.
During the past 16 months, Frankel has filed 60 dangerous dog reports for residents in every borough except Staten Island. But she is scheduled to retire at the end of May.
The second bill would create a digital “centralized dog bite reporting system – for reporting dangerous animal incidents. “We need to clarify dog bite incidents on the local level,” Brewer told the Sunday crowd, “so [this bill mandates] an online reporting mechanism.”
Brewer’s third initiative is to establish a city-wide outreach campaign to increase pet licensing, which is mandatory for NYC dog owners. When owners apply for licenses, they receive a numbered metal ID tag to affix to the dog’s collar. Increased licensing could help expedite dog identification issues in emergencies related to dog bite incidents, according to Brewer.
So far, the city council legislation has garnered between five and nine co-sponsors per bill; Brewer expects more will join in the near future. Brewer’s top priority, according to her chief of staff, Shulamit Puder, is “working with members of [the newly formed] animal welfare caucus. Meanwhile, the [City Council’s health and public safety] committees have prioritized the legislation for a hearing, which is expected this summer.”
Brewer’s fourth and fifth initiatives include formal endorsements of proposed state legislation. In March, Brewer introduced a resolution in support of Upper West Side Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal’s state bill, which would recognize animals as sentient beings and not “property.” Passing this law could shift the issue of chronic, unprovoked dog-on-dog attacks from a civil matter to a criminal matter.
Brewer’s resolution in support of Penny’s Law was introduced on January 29th, 2026. In response to the Upper West Side attack on the chihuahua last May, State Representative Jenifer Rajkumar also drafted a statewide version of Penny’s Law, which seeks to hold aggressive dog owners accountable.
The legislative activity was sparked by an incident in the early evening of May 3, 2025, when Devon Allen walked Penny, a chihuahua he co-owns with his ex-girlfriend, Lauren Claus. Allen paused at the curb of Columbus Avenue and West 85th Street to wait for traffic to pass. “It happened so fast,” he told the WSR of the two large dogs who came alongside and bit down on Penny’s flank, refusing to let her go. “It makes you appreciate every breath she takes,” he said a year later, as he cradled her in his arms, and showed a reporter where the fur was growing over the scars.
In late May of 2025, Claus and Allen (along with Lauren Block, whose two dogs were also injured, one fatally) initiated one of the first civil dog-on-dog lawsuits to go before a city judge. It resulted in a ruling to have the aggressor dogs seized and evaluated.
Joseph Columbus, the accused owner of two pit bulls that attacked multiple dogs on the Upper West Side over the past year, including Penny the chihuahua, was arrested in a New York County courtroom in December of 2025 for civil contempt due to his failure to surrender the animals after a court order to do so. After a week of imprisonment, he was released.
As of this writing, the dogs are still not in custody.
Read More:
- Owner of Pit Bulls that Attacked Penny the Chihuahua on UWS in May is Arrested in NY Courtroom
- Judge Rules in Favor of Owners of Attacked UWS Dog in Joe Columbus Case
- Warrant Issued for the Arrest of UWS Pit Bulls Owner; Dogs Still Not Turned In
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How can Joseph Columbus’s dogs not have been confiscated
by the Animal Control? How can this be?
I do not know the full details of the proposed legislation, but there should be a clause stating that if the dog being attacked was off leash, and the attacking dog was on leash, then the owner of the attacking dog should not be put to blame.
I had a dog reactive rescue pit, and I was extremely careful with her, but it was stressful when other dog owners had their dogs off leash in city parks during hours when they were, according to the law, supposed to be on leash.
Sorry, but I disagree. While the leash laws should be followed, and those who do not follow them should be fined, ANY dog attack is the fault of the attacking dog’s owner, since it means that the owner cannot control their dog, even on a leash. If that is the case, then the dog should not be in the vicinity of other dogs, and the owner needs to make sure of that to the greatest extent possible.
No, if someone’s dog is off leash they are the instigator.
I have to disagree with you, Ian. I used to have a pit bull that was the sweetest dog, but he had been abused as a puppy, being used as a bait dog. We could take him anywhere and keep him under complete control with a short leash and a lot of training. But some dog owners letting their dogs off leash without control could be major problems. I remember this one woman on our block who had a German shepherd that she kept off leash all the time. This one time her dog attempted to mount mine, and I kept telling her to get her dog under control. She kept refusing and I had push her dog away with my foot (not exactly kicking) before my dog would have lost it on this dog that was trying to dominate my dog with no control by its owner. In that case, if my dog would have gotten aggressive with that dog, and potentially killed it, this would have been the fault of the other owner. I did all I could, but if she was going to break the law AND not have any actual control over her dog, there is nothing I could do. The next step, if the dog did not back off when I pushed it off, I would have kicked it away, for the protection of my dog. And depending on how that dog then reacted would have set the tone for what would have happened next. Had she had control of her dog on a leash, there would have been no interaction between the two dogs and my dog would have just continued being the sweetest little pup in the world. My dog and I had the right to walk down the street unmolested by an out of control, off leash dog.
There will ALWAYS be exceptions to every rule. But as a general matter, I stand by my comment.
I would agree with you in a dog park. Or during the park hours when dogs are allowed to be off leash. But not on the street or in the park when leash laws are in effect. I don’t care how dangerous a leashed dog is. If it is on a leash and your purposely unleashed dog comes up to it when it is supposed to be on a leash, you take 100% liability to anything that happens to or by your dog.
You are wrong 100%. People letting their dogs off leash in central park is a real problem. If they can’t keep their dogs away from my dog then I can’t be held responsible for her feeling the need to defend herself.
Ok, so if someone is walking a dog on leash, a dog who has never shown any aggression towards another dog, and an off leash dog attacks that dog, and the on leash dog does serious harm to the off leash dog, you still think the on leash dog should still be held accountable?
I agree completely. We have a dog that’s reactive to off-leash dogs that come running up to her. We have trained her well to follow us and try and move away from the dog, but you cannot predict what an off-leash dog will do — some dogs come racing up to her and she’ll bark and lunge while we shout at the owners to get their dog on-leash. It’s SO stressful for us when we’re following the rules. If you’re breaking the law by having your dog off-leash and running up to our on-leash dog, you cannot put blame on others.
I should clarify that I agree completely with Joanne’s post, NOT Ian Alterman’s.
This!! I have a dog that is reactive to intact males only and unfortunately in my experience, those dog owners don’t seem to care or be aware that their dog is causing a problem. I’ve done TONS of work and training with him, but so often when mine is leashed their intact male dog will waltz up and cause issues and the owners are often barely paying attention.
At that point you must yell at them to keep their dog away.
How about enforcing the leash laws? On any given day, about 75% of dogs in the parks are off leash and dangerous to those responsible owners dogs.
They are off leash during restricted hours. Tney don’t pick up after them as the dogs go into every area of the greens. Tney tear up newl grass after they do their business nd run amok playing catch enough !
Enforced by who? The anti cop UWS now wants cops giving out tickets? Are we still defunding or not? I am confused.
The UWS is NOT “anti-cop.” I don’t know what gave you that idea. In fact, support for the officers of the 20th precinct is among the highest in the City, according to NYPD polling.
As well, “defund the police” is an old and outdated placard slogan that was rarely meant literally; it was about reining in a (then) often out-of-control police force, and cutting off funding for CERTAIN things, while INCREASING funding for things like training, “customer service,” and other things that would cut down on officer aggression or overreach.
YES AGREED! (See my comment above as well)
Gale Brewer and her fellow Council members love to pass new laws to show how much they care about issues. What they fail to do is provide funding to support enforcement of those laws or, as @Mimi correctly points out, funding to enforce existing laws that might solve the problems they’re trying to address. And the Mayor refuses to hire additional police officers necessary to enforce the existing (or new) laws.
To be fair, we should have a less expensive version of the police who would be tasked with enforcing bike violations, leash laws etc. Just like meter maids do, but for routine quality of life “crimes”. Let’s make this happen.
For better or worse, the union would never allow it.
Off leash dogs can also be harmful to humans. Can’t the responsible dog owners say something to the irresponsible dog owners when they see them ‘misbehaving’?
Yes, we try saying something all the time! When off-leash dogs come bounding up to our on-leash dog, the owners are usually nowhere to be found, or on their phones not paying attention. We tell them to leash their dog, and they are usually annoyed, telling us to “relax” or saying their dog “is friendly” (which doesn’t matter when they are racing up to our reactive dog). Dog OWNERS are usually the problem, not the dog. It’s a daily frustration! Parks officials don’t have the budget to enforce this, but I wish we could form a volunteer group to help with enforcement.
“Parks officials don’t have the budget to enforce this,” It really wouldn’t take much. Word would get around quickly. We got people to pick up their dog poo. We can do this 🙂
Drivers licenses aren’t just handed out to people — same should be for licenses for pet owners — have some required classes (‘training’) first. Many dog owners don’t seem to understand how to properly walk their animals on crowded city streets. Please teach them. Many are a hazard for the elderly.
The difference is, people aren’t drivers until they’ve received training. Dogs are born being, you know, dogs.
And how would that work? You can’t own a dog in NYC unless it’s licensed. And you don’t want dogs to get licensed until they have some training. Where do they get that training? Do we send them out of state for that?
I’m talking about TRAINING THE DOG OWNERS!
For that matter, shouldn’t there also be licensing requirements for people who are creating children?
That’s not the topic of this article. Try to keep focused.
Before we have animal cruelty officers in each precinct, lets have officers writing summonses for the violations of dog owners.
Dog owner entitlement is on display at the brand new 97th street entrance to Riverside Park. The city actually did a nice job with the project which had been under way for months. Now that it is finished, dog owners allow their dogs to piss all over it including on the plantings. Yank your dogs leash if yiu havent traihec them where to go.
Bottom like is Dog owners are entitled and completely unaware that their animals are untrained. Most are walked by their dogs and they allow them to do what they want often while trying to convince them to behave with long pleas in english. Pissing on buildings, plantings, statues etc is not OK. Not completely cleaning up dog crap is not ok. Having your dog off leash at unspecified times and areas is not OK.
The city could raise $1,000/stop in any park by enforcing the leash laws followed by summonses for lack of license tag and then proof of vaccination. Most dogs dont have them!
last week I was working on our building’s garden fronting on Little Riverside Drive. My gardening bags and leather gloves were piled by our recessed gate. A young Genz dog owner went by reading his phone, he let his leashed dog walk into our gate area and pee all over my stuff! I had to shout at him before he looked up. He still wasn’t aware of what his dog was doing and took a moment before reeling his dog in. He eventually apologized.
You are correct. Dog owners on the UWS are the worst and truly believe that the rules don’t apply to them or their pets. The neighborhood has become an obstacle course of feces and urine because of these people.
Just tell people that if their dog is off leash that it will be confiscated temporarily or permanently. People would clean up their act fast. And why do we need police to enforce everything every minute? Can’t anybody be civil anymore?
Forget training. I still can’t fathom why we let people use the streets as toilets for their dogs.
Want a dog? You have a bathroom. Handle your business there.
They should have kept Joseph Columbus in jail until he handed over those dogs.
Very glad to hear of these long-overdue, comprehensive legislative initiatives to promote animal welfare and justice. These vicious dog attacks are utterly horrifying, and I’m so happy to see dear Penny looking well and bright eyed in her loving, trailblazing owner’s arms🥰
I think something that’s often left out of this conversation is how many unneutered or intact males are roaming the UWS. The dog parks have no rules against them and they often cause major issues. There’s a reason doggy daycares usually have a “neutered males only” rule. Holding owners accountable after an attack is absolutely necessary but stopping or lessening the chances of these attacks is a necessary step as well.
I couldn’t agree more. Aren’t there any laws about spade or neutering your dog? I saw a guy with a golden retriever not neutered in Central Park last week and he was kicking other dogs away from his. Just horrible!
A suggestion for keeping your dog safe would be to not mindlessly text when you’re walking down the street with your dog zigzagging left and right. You have no idea what’s coming at your dog — pay ATTENTION to it if you really care about it. If I had a dog, I would protect it as if it were my child.
Fairway is now Doggie-Day-Care.
” …they receive a numbered metal ID tag to affix to the dog’s collar…”
Good luck with using that for identification. The number is very lightly laser-etched into the metal tag. Within several months of attaching it to my pup’s harness, it has completely worn off from knocking against his name tag. If the city wants to use this an as identification tool, they need to find a better way to manufacture them.
As someone else suggested, Columbus should have stayed in jail until the dogs were turned over. It’s not that hard. He sounds like a miserable human being.
I do not understand why people choose to have pit bulls. They should not be allowed to reproduce. It is not worth taking the chance that one should be triggered. People should not have to be extra cautious when walking past one for fear that it will be triggered. There are plenty of other breeds of dogs out there.
And I agree with others that leash laws need to be better enforced. I was in Riverside Park last weekend around 11 am and there were dogs off leash everywhere. I don’t care how well behaved you think your dog is – it’s not OK. There are plenty of times when the dog is allowed off leash, and there are lots of dog runs. I don’t know why these people think they are special.
Pit bulls are actually extremely affectionate and loving dogs. They have to be trained to be mean and dangerous.
According to Joe Columbus’ testimony in court, the dogs were removed from his NYC apartment and are living with a relative outside the City. And although he is an inveterate liar, this may be true, since I have not seen his dogs in quite some time. (Has anyone else?)
Still, if the court order was for him to hand over the dogs to NYC Animal Control, then he is still violating the court order by not doing so.
Sadly, unless he or his dogs harmed a human being, charges like “depraved indifference” do not apply. It sounds like Ms. Brewer is trying to create a law that would make it possible to do so. Brava.
Lauren Claus is the Santa Claus of making sure that dogs are treated better!
my 9 pound, 12 yr old miniature schnauzer was mauled to death by two pitbulls right outside my brooklyn apartment because their owner was standing there, blocking the sidewalk, too busy trying to flirt with some girls to keep them at bay. not only do i support this legislation, but i believe pet owners with “aggressive” dogs, in this case, rescued dogs with known aggression issues, should be mandated to have training and/or license to handle them. as traumatic as it was i cant blame the dogs, just terrible owners lacking the skills needed to keep their pets in open society. and what if they attacked a small child?