A 17-month-old Brooklyn dog is facing the death penalty after viciously biting two people last year.
City health officials said they are making the rare move to euthanize the dog named Disel because the two frightening incidents show he is a danger to the public.
An administrative law judge agreed, issuing a ruling Jan. 8 that Disel cannot be retrained and doubting his owner, Kasseam Stanley, is responsible enough to make sure the pooch doesn’t hurt anyone else.
“I believe my dog is provoked by anybody he don’t know, because that’s how I trained my dog,” Stanley said in court, according to the decision. “If you don’t know him, keep him away.'”
Authorities say the first attack came on July 31, 2014, when Disel bit a woman sitting outside a store on East New York Ave. in Brooklyn. He latched onto her foot and wouldn’t let go until several people pulled him off.
Stanley agreed to sign Disel over to Animal Care and Control of NYC. While playing catch with a shelter worker for exercise, he suddenly lunged at her and bit her ankle and thigh several times. He started dragging her across the yard and didn’t let go even after another worker sprayed him with water.
Disel released his bite only after he was given a sedative. The employee needed emergency surgery for her injuries. The attack left her with permanent nerve damage.
“This is the first time in the last five years that we’ve gone to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings to recommend a dog be humanely euthanized,” the Health Department said in a statement. “The five to 10 dangerous dog cases heard at OATH each year usually result in owners being ordered to do additional behavioral training, put up fencing, or commit to having the dog wear a muzzle in public.”
Stanley called Disel, a large mixed breed, a family dog but admitted he trained the dog to “go low … grab they (sic) ankle. If it must, break it, but don’t kill them,” according to the decision.
