The rental building at 175 West 79th Street — within the coronary heart of the Upper West Side — would appear like a dream, roughly equidistant from the American Museum of Natural History and Zabar’s.
Realtors extol its luxurious, prewar particulars and record two-bedroom models there for upward of $6,000 a month.
But beware: Lurking within the foyer or elevator is Sam, an emotional help canine successfully terrorizing the building.
So says a lawsuit filed last month by a tenant who was attacked within the elevator in September by Sam, a mixed-breed rescue canine, and wanted medical consideration. The tenant later found that Sam had been concerned in roughly a dozen different altercations with residents, employees members and supply staff in and across the building.
The canine as soon as rushed at a supply employee within the elevator and bit him whereas in midair, the lawsuit says. He lunged at a person ready for a crosstown bus simply exterior the building. He attacked a doorman within the elevator and “wildly thrashed his mouth back and forth” towards the person’s leg, making an attempt to interrupt freed from the muzzle he was carrying, based on the lawsuit.
The go well with blames Sam’s house owners for failing to take preventive motion and for refusing to surrender the canine or transfer out. It additionally claims that the building’s proprietor and administration firm, each named as defendants, had been conscious of the canine’s aggressive habits however did not cease it or notify tenants.
Suing over canine assaults is hardly unusual within the United States. There had been 19,062 canine chew legal responsibility claims filed throughout the nation in 2023, with payouts totaling greater than $1.1 billion, based on the Insurance Information Institute, with 851 claims in New York State and $56.7 million in payouts.
But the small print of this lawsuit, and people concerned, are distinctive. The plaintiff, Joe Venafro, 48, is a tv information producer who survived six months of bomb sweeping embedded with the U.S. army in Afghanistan. He is being represented by Jeffrey Ok. Levine, a private harm and civil rights lawyer who has represented Michael D. Cohen, a onetime fixer for former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Venafro is suing Sam’s house owners, Alan Katz and Inna Fayenson, who’re each attorneys themselves.
After Sam attacked one other neighbor two winters in the past, the go well with says, Ms. Fayenson requested that neighbor to not inform the owner and sweetened the request by giving her an costly field of cookies from Levain Bakery.
The problem has develop into the discuss of the building and has cut up loyalties even amongst employees members.
It has additionally made headlinessome even earlier than the lawsuit was filed. In an October article about how Sam was terrorizing the building, The New York Post referred to him as “the Upper West Side’s most feared emotional support dog.”
The lawsuit, which steadily refers to Sam merely as “animal,” particulars a dozen situations of the canine variously lunging at tenants, snapping and snarling — typically restrained, typically not — within the elevator, within the hallways, within the foyer and on the sidewalk exterior the building.
Mr. Venafro stated in an interview that administration officers predicted a prolonged authorized course of since Ms. Fayenson was insistent that Sam, as her help animal, was protected by federal regulation.
Federal and state legal guidelines do shield tenants with emotional help animals towards no-pet insurance policies and elimination, however not if the animals develop into a hazard to others.
A canine can usually be labeled an emotional help animal with a health care provider’s letter. Critics have complained that the standing is simply too straightforward to achieve, together with via web sites that cost charges to generate physician’s notes with out bodily inspecting candidates.
The animals don’t take pleasure in protections as robust as service dogs, that are educated to do work or carry out duties for folks with disabilities. But taking improper motion towards even an emotional help canine might expose a building’s administration to authorized motion, leading to a fantastic and damages.
Calls to the proprietor of 175 West 79th Street and its administration firm, Rotner Management, weren’t returned. Ms. Fayenson and Mr. Katz didn’t reply to requests for remark. The couple has one other canine in addition to Sam who doesn’t have a fame for aggressive habits and isn’t named within the lawsuit.
Mr. Levine stated it had been arduous to get anybody to do something about Sam. Contacting the police, metropolis companies and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals yielded scant outcomes or solutions, he stated.
“It was very frustrating — I’m a lawyer experienced in dealing with government agencies and departments, and even I could not get cooperation from any one of them,” he stated.
There are roughly half one million dogs in New York, based on estimates from metropolis officers, and no scarcity of headlines about doggy dust-ups.
There was the pair of pit bulls that terrorized Manhattan’s Turtle Bay neighborhood in 2004, and the 98-pound white German shepherd named Syko, who was the unofficial mascot of a quaint little bookstore on the Upper East Side and had a penchant for eviscerating smaller dogs.
In 2009, a lawyer who lived on Central Park West filed a go well with claiming that the extreme “whining, barking, yapping and squealing” by her neighbor’s two Chihuahuas was inflicting agonizing again ache.
Mr. Venafro’s go well with claims that Sam’s house owners usually ignored or dismissed duty for the altercations by saying that he loves most individuals and blaming the victims.
In the Post article, Mr. Katz and Ms. Fayenson performed down the episodes, saying that Sam had merely lunged towards his leash, one thing that different dogs within the building do.
Mr. Katz was quoted indicating that Mr. Venafro’s accidents weren’t extreme, and noting that he was by no means admitted to a hospital. Ms. Fayenson stated the couple had began muzzling the canine after Mr. Venafro was injured.
Viviane Arzoumanian, a certified dog trainer and habits marketing consultant in Brooklyn, stated a canine seen as harmful might typically sharply divide neighbors in a building and result in authorized motion as a substitute of workable options.
Most canine house owners are inclined to take swift motion after even one attack, to make sure that the animal doesn’t trigger any additional hurt, she stated.
“Usually in a situation like this, the owner would be seriously embarrassed by their dog’s behavior and worried about him hurting more people, and would employ a trainer and always keep the dog muzzled in public areas of the building,” she stated.
“It’s sad, because I can completely believe that this dog who is frightening to other people, is very beloved to this couple and does offer solace to his owner who needs him, but that’s not what the public sees.”
Mr. Levine stated he had affidavits from folks concerned within the altercations with Sam and video footage of among the assaults. Those folks both did not return a reporter’s calls or refused to remark. “They’re scared to complain because they’re scared of losing their apartment,” Mr. Levine stated, referring to these concerned.
In addition to looking for monetary damages for ache and struggling, Mr. Venafro’s go well with claims that Sam’s house owners slandered and defamed him by telling neighbors that “nothing happened” to him.
He stated that whereas using an elevator with Sam final September, the canine lunged at him and bit his midsection, leaving quite a few chew wounds round a delicate scar from an operation associated to his Crohn’s illness.
Ms. Fayenson didn’t assist or apologize, he stated.
“She said something like, ‘Oh my God, that never happens,’” he stated. “I was disgusted by her lack of sympathy.”
Mr. Venafro stated he known as 911 and that when officers responded, Sam’s house owners lastly apologized in entrance of them — however Ms. Fayenson and Mr. Katz denied that Sam had been concerned in different violent episodes.
“I’m not one to complain about any little thing,” stated Mr. Venafro.
Mr. Venafro, who stated he had a compromised immune system, sought remedy at an area pressing care heart, the place he was prescribed antibiotics and vaccinated towards tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis.
Mr. Venafro stated that after the attack, his doorman informed him that one other doorman within the building had beforehand complained of a run-in with Sam. Mr. Venafro began canvassing the building, and after listening to extra horror tales, rapidly got here to the conclusion that he wasn’t alone.
“Out of the woodwork, people started approaching me,” he stated. “It was alarming that a lot of people had had incidents with this dog, and I wanted to know why the dog was still in the building.”
Soon after, a neighbor of his started slipping fliers beneath tenants’ doorways warning them to “protect yourself and your family” from canine assaults and to keep away from using the elevator with the couple’s two dogs.
A discover was additionally taped to the elevator wall asserting a muzzle requirement for dogs within the building. Mr. Venafro stated it remained principally unenforced.
