“Without provocation, the pit bull mix sunk his locked jaw through Coco’s skull causing Coco severe pain, lacerations, blood loss, skull fractures, brain damage and ultimately lead to her painful death,” Susan Kahn of Greenburgh asserted in her court papers filed Wednesday in state Supreme Court in White Plains.
The dog-on-dog violence sparked Kahn, who also lives in Manhattan, to hire an attorney and a press agent. While Kahn posted her story of Coco’s demise on several pet web sites shortly after her death last month, she wasn’t giving interviews this week, according to her publicist Nina Reeves.
In an email to The Journal News on Wednesday highlighting her lawsuit, Kahn spoke of Coco “being senselessly and brutally killed at a dog training and boarding facility in Putnam Valley.” The suit also said the same dog that attacked Coco later assaulted a child — a possibility supported by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
“It is my hope that no other family should have to suffer a tragedy as bad or worse than ours,” Kahn, a mother of two, wrote.
Known as Dog Obedience Girl, the Putnam Valley camp is owned by Joanne Willard, according to the suit, and the smaller dog was sent there for three weeks. At the end of that period, “Coco would no longer be afraid or anxious about other dogs and that Kahn would be taught how to keep Coco that way,” the suit states.
Willard on Thursday expressed regret over Coco’s death and said she had yet to be served with the lawsuit, which seeks legal, medical and dog-training costs plus $100,000.
Kahn dropped Coco off on March 15 and “went on vacation for a few days with members of her family and friends.”
On March 27, while still on vacation, Kahn said she received a phone call telling her a 40-pound pit bull mix attacked the 17-pound cockapoo and “it doesn’t look good.”
Coco later died at the Animal Medical Center on the Upper East Side.
PIT BULL HAD HISTORY OF VICIOUS BEHAVIOR
The larger dog, the court papers said, more recently harmed a child.
Capt. William McNamara of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office said a pit bull mix owned by Willard jumped over a fence and into a children’s birthday party on April 4, where she grabbed the wrist of a 4-year-old girl.
The dog “left light marks on the child’s skin,” the police report said. The pit bull mix was found to have all its vaccinations and was returned the next day to Willard.
The matter, McNamara said, was turned over to the Putnam Valley dog-control officer.
Neither Willard nor Patricia Smith, the Putnam Valley dog control officer, responded to telephone messages Friday.
(The Journal News - Apr. 28, 2012)
