By John C. O'Connell
A neighborhood is on guard and a Valley Stream family is in mourning after their pet dog was killed last week by a bullmastiff that had escaped from a Rosedale backyard, witnesses to the incident said.
Oscar, the Zachmann's 4-year-old red miniature poodle, was with Gerald Zachmann standing outside the family's Southgate Road home when Butch, the Queens dog, "came out of nowhere" and attacked the smaller dog, grabbing it in its jaws, severing Oscar's leash and running down the street with Oscar hanging out of its mouth, according to a witness.
When police managed to free the poodle from Butch's mouth and took Oscar to the veterinary hospital, the Zachmann's pet was dead.
"My husband was walking him right in front of our house, he was actually standing still talking to my neighbor from across the street, who was walking his miniature female poodle on a leash. They were just standing there talking to each other. The dogs were just sitting there. All of a sudden from out of nowhere, from behind my husband, came this huge dog. It lunged at my dog, picked him up, ripped the collar right off of him, with leash attached, and had him by the neck. My husband turned and tried to hit the dog in the face to get him to drop him, to no avail.
"I have two children, and I know this was not my child, but it's like having a baby ripped out of your arms." Oscar was part of the family, Zachmann said. "We were doing everything right, it was a normal part of the day. My daughter can't understand how this kind of dog can just be returned to its owner."
Bruce Sher, a neighbor who witnessed the incident, said he was standing with his own dog talking to Zachmann. Both dogs were on their leashes when Butch attacked around 1:00 or 1:15 in the afternoon. "Within a split-second, out of the corner of my eye, this dog came charging" and attacked Oscar. "The dog just ripped away and ran down the street with [Zachmann's] dog in its mouth," headed back toward Queens. They saw a boy, 8 or 9 years old by Sher's estimate, and they yelled at him, asking, "Is that your dog?" The boy denied he owned the dog.
According to Sher, several people called 911 and an ambulance was first on the scene. The ambulance driver pulled up to the dog and something at that moment made the bullmastiff drop Oscar. Zachmann picked Oscar up "and the dog lunged at him, obviously trying to get Oscar" back. They successfully got Oscar in the ambulance, but the poodle died at the animal hospital.
Butch was still loose after Oscar was taken away, Sher reports, and "there were about six cop cars there and I said tranquilize that dog, kill that dog, do something to that dog. People were scrambling and jumping into cars because now the dog doesn't have something in its mouth and we don't know if it's going to attack a person."
The little boy who had denied a relationship to the dog earlier, said, "The dog won't attack people, it only attacks dogs," according to Sher. Butch "definitely did not have a leash on him," Sher said. "It had a chain collar with a padlock" on it, according to the witness. "There was no leash, and the boy didn't have a leash with him, either."
In addition to the Zachmann's suffering the loss of their family pet, Sher said, the "problem is that they gave [the Queens owners] this dog back, without concern for the neighborhood. Obviously, this dog attacks other dogs and the type of neighborhood we live in behind Green Acres Mall is a nice community. Kids come home from school, and part of their having a pet is taking responsibility for caring for it and walking it, and now no one's going to walk a dog, we don't know where to walk our dog. I'm afraid to send my wife outside walking the dog. Here we had two adults, and a dog comes out of absolutely nowhere and attacks, and if my wife is walking the dog she's defenseless, my children are defenseless."
Several calls by the Herald to Butch's owner in Rosedale were not returned.
"Their dog is a killer and should not be allowed out or near any dogs. It should have been put away, it should have been tranquilized, and if that dog does attack other animals then that dog should not be allowed to be on the streets. We've been telling all the dog owners not to walk their dogs. We've been saying that dog is still at large. I would strongly warn everybody not to walk their dogs out on the streets here. This dog and this type of breed is bred to kill."
