Pit Bull Attack Causes Chaos At Luxury New York City High Rise

Chaos ensued at a luxury high-rise in New York’s Midtown on Friday morning when a tenant ordered his pit bull to attack a neighbor. The incident happened on the ninth floor of the Biltmore on West 47th Street near Eighth Avenue. Police arrived at the scene at around 9:30 a.m. and found two men fighting on the floor. They were both seemingly under the influence of drugs, New York Post reported.

One of the neighbors, 37-year-old Benjamin Stueben, described the horrifying incident.

“I heard a blood-curdling scream … really high-pitched. [The screaming] went on for maybe two minutes. I heard it [when] I was coming down the elevator.”

Another neighbor, 50-year-old Shawn Ulibarri, was witnessing the chaos through his apartment peephole.

“He was saying, ‘Sic him, sic him. Get him!’ The dog attacked the guy. He was growling and shaking his head back and forth, the way dogs do. The guy getting attacked by the dog screamed, ‘Call the police, call the police!'”

Ulibarri said that one of the men was a tenant of the building while another was a visitor. He also added that the men appeared to under the influence of drugs.

Once the police arrived on the screen, they tranquilized the dog and removed it in a large crate. The two men were then arrested. It is unclear what has happened to the dog. One of the two men that were arrested had visibly suffered dog bites, according to the Police. Both men were transported to Bellevue Hospital.

Pit bulls were created by breeding bulldogs and terriers together. They were meant to be fighting dogs for blood sport, and as such were selectively bred to be aggressive and vicious. Today, a few hundred years later, such games are illegal, but the breed lives on and with a bad reputation. Many people argue that pit bulls are not vicious breeds by birth and it is the owners of these dogs that lead them into becoming vicious. While it is true with any large/working breed of dogs that an inexperienced owner can lead it to becoming aggressive and vicious, incidents of aggression from pit bulls are more commonly reported than with other breeds, possibly owing to the bad reputation.

The United Kennel Club, the second oldest Kennel Club in the United States and possibly the world’s largest performance dog registry, describes the characteristics of the American pit bull terrier as strong, confident and having a zest for life. They are also said to make good family dogs and are good with children.

While many pit bulls are gentle and happy family dogs, incidents such as these have led several countries around the world and some states in the U.S. to impose restrictions and in some cases outright bans on the ownership of the breed.

[Featured Image by Audrey Lohkamp/Shutterstock]