{"id":16166,"date":"2025-10-25T12:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16166\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T12:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T12:21:07","slug":"owner-of-nyc-pit-bulls-accused-of-mauling-penny-the-chihuahua-ordered-to-surrender-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/16166\/","title":{"rendered":"Owner of NYC pit bulls accused of mauling Penny the chihuahua ordered to surrender dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finally, some ruff justice.<\/p>\n

A notorious pair of NYC pit bull mixes must be surrendered to the city, evaluated and possibly euthanized after they attacked three small dogs<\/a> in two separate incidents \u2014 killing one, a Manhattan judge ruled this week. <\/p>\n

If owner Joseph Columbus fails to turn over Rambo and Zooey \u2014 who mauled a chihuahua<\/a> named Penny <\/a> in May on the Upper West Side and attacked two Shih Tzu mixes, killing one, in January in Central Park \u2014 law enforcement can seize the animals, Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond decided Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Columbus, 40, of the Upper West Side, must also pay for evaluations and training for Rambo and Zooey once they\u2019re in \u201cpermanent\u201d city custody and reimburse Lauren Block, the owner of Shih Tzus Grover and Chuckie, nearly $22,000 in veterinary bills, court papers show.<\/p>\n

Joseph Columbus has been ordered to surrender his pups \u2014 who were accused of a third incident in March, court records show. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court reserves its right to make a finding for humane euthanasia, based upon the evaluations performed by ACC and\/or [the city Health Department],\u201d according to the decision.<\/p>\n

Columbus has allegedly been evading authorities for months<\/a>, and ducked out of his kid\u2019s school graduation in June to avoid arrest, a city sheriff\u2019s deputy claimed.<\/p>\n

In June, Columbus failed to bring Zooey and the 100-pound Rambo<\/a> to cops, and then refused to open his door or answer the phone when police showed up later to take them.<\/p>\n

The attack on Penny, a 16-pound Chihuahua mix and service pooch, came about five months after the savage beasts attacked Grover and Chuckie \u2014 leaving the 17-year-old, 12-pound, blind Grover so seriously injured he had to be euthanized, court records showed.<\/p>\n

Columbus was ordered to keep the dogs leashed and muzzled after the January attack but allegedly failed to do so, according to the judge.<\/p>\n

Penny the Chihuahua was mercilessly attacked in May as she walked on the Upper West Side. Gabriella Bass<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week, justice prevailed,\u201d said attorney Mollie Swears, who represents Block, and Penny\u2019s owners Devon Allen and Lauren Claus.<\/p>\n

Columbus could not be reached. <\/p>\n

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His attorney, who previously accused the victims of lying that the dogs had bitten a person as well, told The Post Columbus only owns Rambo \u2014 and gave him up when was sued by the victims in May. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn the very first day that he appeared, he told the court he did not have the dogs.\u00a0 As far as I know, he still doesn\u2019t,\u201d insisted lawyer Ikiesha Al-Shabazz, claiming both she and Columbus were threatened and hit with racial slurs as the case made headlines. <\/p>\n

The attack on Penny was allegedly unprovoked, her owners said. WCBS-TV<\/p>\n

He\u2019s currently facing eviction from his grandmother\u2019s Columbus Avenue apartment \u2014 where court records show Rambo and Zooey were accused in March of another incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cDogs owned and controlled by \u2026 Joseph Columbus bit a dog owned by the tenants in PHA creating an unsafe environment and in which those tenants vacated,\u201d the landlord wrote in court papers.<\/p>\n

The dogs also caused \u201cextreme damage,\u201d chewing through kitchen cabinets, walls, floors and baseboards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe smell of urine in the unit was very evident,\u201d the landlord claimed.<\/p>\n

The eviction proceeding is ongoing. A lawyer for the landlord did not respond to a message. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finally, some ruff justice. A notorious pair of NYC pit bull mixes must be surrendered to the city,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11640,6530,75,4327,57,9,56,63,65,64,11641,58],"class_list":["post-16166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animal-attacks","tag-dogs","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-supreme-court","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pit-bulls","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}