Last night on the ABC and CBS 11 o’clock news, the mother of the girl who was mauled by a dog on Center Boulevard was interviewed. In one of the lead stories on both channels , she gave an account of the incident and made a plea to the authorities to help find the dogs owner. Now we will share with you the details of her frustrating ordeal.

The attack occurred on Center Boulevard the evening of August 30. The mother’s first concern was for the care of her child – when you see your daughter coming towards you bleeding profusely from the head, that should be your only concern. Apparently the woman walking the dog didn’t offer any assistance, instead choosing to drift down the road and wait.

The police came and took down the alleged dog owner’s contact information, unfortunately they neglected to take down the owner’s telephone number, despite their being a designated field for it on the report. Also not taken down, was the woman’s own contact information. I’m no detective, but isn’t that why we’re supposed to show ID upon questioning? Without it, any alleged criminal could effectively just give false information and disappear.

Adding to the misery, it appears that the officer taking down the address may have written down the wrong apartment number originally, and definitely put down the wrong zip code. It didn’t matter anyway, because the original letter sent out by the ABU to the owner of the dog asking for rabies info, had no apartment number, and thus was returned. In addition, the report had one incorrect digit on the victim’s parent’s telephone number, so when the Animal Bite Unit (ABU) called them the day after the incident, they got a “Phone Disconnected” message, and it appears didn’t reach out again for three weeks.

Now we go on to the ABU. It’s a city agency down near the Financial District that specifically handles dog attacks, I believe for all five borough’s. Dog law it seems, is it’s own animal. So be it. Thus, once a local precinct writes it up (on a special form labeled Dangerous Animal/Dog Bite Report PD 311-152), the case pretty much gets shipped downtown to a bureaucracy that deals with these things day in/day out, and loses any sense of its local nature. Not to mention urgency.

Worse, if you want to get any information from them regarding the owners, you need to file a FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) request, requiring the agency to provide you with the info within 20 business days. Which they can then defer for another 20 days.

At this point you are probably thinking to yourself “What a nightmare for a parent to endure,” so I’m not going to run you through the rest of the exasperating saga, which as I’ve stated before is Kafkaesque.

Unfortunately, it’s also a little heartless. When something like this happens in a neighborhood such as LIC, or any neighborhood for that matter – we’re talking about an 8-year old child with half her mouth torn off, it deserves prioritizing and measures that go beyond cut ‘n paste. This is especially true when the record-keeping is sloppy and incomplete . Judging by the responses, it seems all the readers realize this , now we’re waiting for the authorities to do so .

As for the owner of the dog, despite now having an address, which may or may not be correct, he’s unreachable and rumored to have moved out two weeks ago. The ABU’s last response to the parents was a form letter basically stating “We can’t find him, here’s his address you go and do so. Otherwise we advise your child to get rabies shots.”

Finally, we ask this question of the woman walking the dog ‘What kind of human being simply walks away without assisting or showing concern after a vicious attack such as this?’ Hopefully we’ll all know her name soon enough.

Mother Wants To Find Dog That Mauled Her Daughter in Queens – CBS’ story

Family Searches For Dog That Allegedly Mauled Her Daughter in Long Island City – ABC’s