An afternoon commute turned to terror for passengers aboard a subway in New York. Tensions rose when a man brought his pit bull on the train. Then, the animal attacked, and the horror was caught on video. However, the dog’s victim had done one thing that has some viewers of the footage saying she got what she deserved. Now, you decide.
It was approximately 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon in New York City when what should have been a mundane subway ride turned to terror after a man brought his full-grown pit bull onto the busy train with just a leash. Right away, fellow passengers on the 4 train approaching Wall Street became tense just at the sight of the animal. Then, the unnamed pit bull owner let his dog up on the seat beside a passenger, and that’s when the nightmare began.
The passenger, whose name has not been released to the public, was not happy to have the dog sitting right beside her. According to witnesses, she let her displeasure be known in more ways than one — a move she likely came to regret when the dog latched onto her foot, sunk his teeth in, and wouldn’t let go.
“She’s like, ‘the dog doesn’t belong on the seat.’ He’s like, ‘I’m not moving my dog,’” recalled Tahysi Kyng, who recorded video of the incident. Then, the woman took things to the next level, and what she did has some saying that she deserved the attack that was about to happen.
“She pushes it like, ‘What is this dog doing on the chair?’ And he’s like, ‘do not push my dog.’ And she does it one more time, and he just goes swinging,” added Denise Leon, who happened to be another witness to the incident.
Things then went from bad to worse when the woman and dog owner started fighting, with the pit bull still between them, according to Kyng. As the dog’s owner and the woman engage in a verbal altercation, the pit bull becomes protective of his master and lashes out against the woman just like he saw his owner doing.
“He’s jumping on her, but she moves back. That’s when he [the dog] catches hold of her shoe and he was not letting it go,” added Leon. With the pit bull latched on, commuters begin circling around the animal with its teeth tightly clenched around a woman’s foot as her leg twists with each tug from the dog.
While some tried to help, other riders kept their distance, yelling at the owner to get his dog off the woman. However, “He never told the dog to let her go at all,” said Kyng. Luckily, the woman’s shoe eventually came off, but viewers would be further shocked when the dog’s owner, who had been trying to wrestle the dog off by its collar, threw the woman’s shoe back at her.
Since the conductor made everyone get off the train at the next stop, witnesses didn’t get a chance to ask the woman if she was alright, but she was able to walk and didn’t appear to be bleeding. “I just wanted to know if she was OK,” Leon said.
As for those who didn’t step in and do more to help her, Leon explains, “At the same time, you want to help her, but you don’t want the dog to turn on you.” Then, she points out the real problem with the incident. “Big dogs are not supposed to be on the train,” Leon said.
The NYPD and MTA are investigating the attack. According to MTA rules, the pit bull, which the owner only had on a leash, should not have been on the train in the first place. As CBS2 explains, “The MTA allows dogs on subway cars but they must be contained to a carrying case. A spokesperson told CBS2 the video is ‘disturbing and a clear violation of our rules.’”
Still, some people say the woman, who they call an “idiot,” got what she deserves because she should not have touched the dog like she did when she pushed it away from her.
Others even go as far as to say she should be charged with animal cruelty for her supposed “attack” on the dog and his owner, but that seems to be a bit of a stretch.
Although the women’s actions were ignorant and no one should ever attempt to enforce pet regulations themselves, you simply do not bring a pit bull on a busy train. So, it seems this is likely a case of two wrongs don’t make a right — and when we say wrongs, we aren’t talking about the dog, but rather the humans.
Of course, the dog shouldn’t be there and the owner made a terrible decision when he chose to break the rules and bring it on the train, but the woman also used poor judgment when she decided to pick a fight with the dog and its owner instead of finding a new seat. She’s lucky she still has her foot. While fault can be debated, what’s certain is that no one wins here after two adults failed to use their better judgment.