Res 0963-2025

Whereas, According to a date article, "Grisly NYC dog attack inspires new "Penny's Law" to hold negligent pet owners criminally accountable," by Nicole Rosenthal in The New York Post, a Chihuahua named Penny, who was mauled on the Upper West Side on May 2, 2025 by two pit bulls, allegedly off their leashes, was hospitalized requiring surgery following the attack; and Whereas, Rosenthal claims that "Penny's Law," seeks to create criminal offenses for careless owners - including cruelty to animals through negligent handling of a dog and leaving the scene of an animal attack; and Whereas, Rosenthal states in "Grisly NYC dog attack inspires new "Penny's Law" to hold negligent pet owners criminally accountable," that the same pit bulls that attacked Penny are believed to have killed a dog in Central Park earlier this year, while the dogs were illegally off their leashes and the lack of accountability has permitted numerous dog owners to allow their pets to attack other dogs without consequences; and Whereas, Rosenthal also states that dogs are considered property under the state law and police do not get involved, unless a human is attacked or a human owner participates and this has drawn attention to the limitations of existing law, which often provides no path for justice, unless a person is injured; and Whereas, "Rajkumar introduces "Penny's Law" to hold reckless dog owners accountable for violent pet attacks," by Colum Motherway in politics undergirds that on April 24, 2025, before Penny's attack, another off-leash dog injured both a person and another dog in Riverside Park and in that incident, the dog's owner fled the scene; and Whereas, Motherway states that in 2025 alone, New York City's (NYC's) 311 system recorded over 1,300 complaints involving off-leash dogs-a figure animal advocate states underrepresents the true scale of the problem; and Whereas, "How many more dogs need to die before lawmakers protect New Yorkers?," by Gail Luben affirms that for years, Staten Island has had the highest rate of dog bites in NYC and that is still the case with the data from 2022-2023, showing that Staten Island saw 124 dog bites per 100,000 residents, compared to 82 for the rest of the city; and Whereas, A. 8462, sponsored by Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar and pending in the New York State Assembly seeks to enact "Penny's law" to create the offenses of negligent and reckless handling of a dog, codifies the requirement that dogs be restrained, and requires signs in parks that dogs must be leashed; and Whereas, "Penny's Law" is important to the Council because it addresses the issue of criminal accountability for dog owners, whose pets cause harm, particularly in violent dog-on-dog attacks and this legislation seeks to close a legal loophole that has left many pet owners with limited recourse after their pets are injured by aggressive dogs, aiming to hold negligent owners accountable and ensuring the safety of other animals and people; now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the New York State Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, A. 8462, known as "Penny's law," which would create the offenses of negligent handling of a dog and reckless handling of a dog. LS #19695; 19714; 19948 6/13/2025 OO