Meet the Upper West Side’s most feared emotional support dog.
Sam, the 4-year-old rescue, is accused of biting someone until he needed antibiotics and attacking tenants, staff and delivery workers at his owner’s W79th St apartment building — and is the subject of a police report.
He has also pushed an anonymous PSA telling people not to get on the elevator with him.
Joe Venafro, who did dare to ride, said he was left with seven puncture wounds when Sam, an unknown breed mix, bit his stomach so hard that he called the police.
Venafro got into the elevator on September 8 after dropping her daughter off at school, sharing it with fellow tenant Inna Fayenson, a Harvard-educated lawyer, and her two dogs – one of them Sam, her emotional support dog for stress and anxiety for the last three years.
What followed, as seen on video obtained by The Post, was anything but neighborly.
TV producer Joe Venafro was in the elevator on Friday, September 8 after dropping his daughter off at school when Sam attacked.
“I walked into the elevator, and one of the dogs pounced on me; he barks and growls,” said Venafro, who once owned a dog in the city.
“I pressed against the side of the elevator, keeping my distance. I made eye contact with the dog and that stopped him. Then I looked up to see how many floors I had to go before I could get off the elevator. That’s when the dog attacked me.
Venafro doubled the pain from the bite. Police were called and Venafro went to urgent care. The owner, Harvard-trained lawyer Inna Feyenson, was also in the elevator.
“The animal jumped and attacked my navel. He bit the scar where, a few years ago, I had surgery for my Crohn’s disease.”
In the video of the dog attack Venafro, a Columbia journalism graduate and TV producer who has been embedded in Afghanistan, can be seen doubled over in pain and stumbling out of the elevator.
He went downstairs, reported the incident to the doorman, and called the police.
Venafro was left with this wound after being bitten by Sam in the elevator. He was also given 10 days of antibiotics and a tetanus shot. Sam’s co-owner, Alan Katz, refers to BandAids.
Venafro refused an ambulance and went to urgent care where he received vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, had his wounds cleaned and was given antibiotics for 10 days, he said.
And Sam was the subject of a police report and a report from a doctor to the City Health Department.
“I never expected to be attacked by this dog, unprovoked, on my way home, and sustain serious injuries for which I continue to receive medical attention,” Venafro said.
Venafro, a TV producer reporting from Afghanistan, has tried to lock eyes with the dog, but to no avail.
But Sam’s co-owner Alan Katz told The Post it wasn’t a big deal. “No one is denying that the dog bit him,” Katz said.
“He needs a BandAid and he needs antibiotics. If it is [a big deal], he will be admitted. No stitches are required. They cleaned the wound and sent him home.”
And her entanglement with Sam doesn’t seem like an isolated incident.
This is an auxiliary police report filled out after a bite. Venafro refused to ride in the ambulance that was sent but went to urgent care himself. NYPD
Shortly after Venafro was bitten, an anonymous tenant (Venafro said it wasn’t him) slipped a note under an apartment door in the building.
“Beware of dogs,” it warned. “Two dogs came in [Sam’s owners’ apartment] have attacked tenants, staff and delivery people … Don’t get on the elevator with them. Don’t let them get on the elevator if you’re already there.”
One tenant, who did not want to be named, fearing the heat from the building, told The Post, “The dog jumped at me and it was scary.
This note was tucked under the door in the large apartment building. Venafro was bitten on Friday, but the anonymous author got the day wrong.
“If I’m in the elevator, I tell the lady with the dog that she can’t get on it. Just in case, I kept the iPhone in my hand for protection.”
Fayenson denied to The Post that Sam and their other dog, Dolce, a 5-year-old miniature Australian shepherd, had attacked tenants, staff and delivery people in the building. She said, “Both our dogs have been muzzled since the incident [with Venafro].”
And he says the dispute with Venafro after the bite has made it worse for Sam to support him.
Sam escaped his owner’s grasp when he was caught on camera outside the building, jumping towards a man waiting for the M79 intercity bus.
“I’m under a lot of stress, and my anxiety and other conditions, for which Sam has been an emotional support dog for 3 years, have gotten really bad,” she said.
Katz said, “Sam was on a leash and lunged. The other dogs in the building did that.”
But muzzles don’t necessarily curb the intimidation factor. An employee in the building finds himself in an elevator with Sam and a dog walker.
Sam hit the back of a would-be bus passenger in the incident on October 10. Venafro’s lawyer obtained a recording of the incident. NY Post
“Sam grunted and pulled the rope,” the worker claimed. “At one point the dog walker lost control of Sam. He lunged at me, hitting my leg with his muzzle. Sam wildly thrashed his mouth back and forth against my leg, trying to free himself from the muzzle and bite me.”
The building, it seems, isn’t Sam’s only place for muzzle attacks.
Video obtained by Venafro attorney Jeffrey K. Levine, best known for representing President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, captures Sam chasing after a man waiting for the M79 cross-city bus.
He was walking by Katz on October 10 when he broke free from Katz’s grip on the rope and lunged at the man.
“I was taking care of our other dog, holding Sam and losing my grip,” Katz said. “Sam mouthed and lunged at the man but he couldn’t do anything.
Venafro’s attorney, Jeffrey Levine, said he believes the sting will end in a lawsuit. Law Offices of Jeffrey K. Levine
“The man was scared, but nothing else happened. I spoke to him, and I apologized, and we moved on.”
Katz said the support dog itself was “triggered” by the sound of “a car with wheels.”
Levine, Venafro’s attorney, predicted a lawsuit. And adding insult to injury, Venafro said, “I was out of town for a few days and the dog pounced on my son. You know, I like dogs. I grew up with a dog. I just don’t like dogs that attack me, my neighbors and my family members in the building where we live.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
