Yorkie’s death at N.Y. airport facility sparks legal fight

NEW YORK >> It may not rate as an international scandal, but the death of a Yorkshire terrier in U.S. custody is fueling a messy legal battle over the importation of a group of purebred canines imported from Russia.

The dog died in September at a private facility at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport used to hold animals from overseas that are denied entry to the U.S. by federal officials. The news was heartbreaking for a woman who says she was the owner-in-waiting for the Yorkie.

“It’s been really, really rough for me to deal with her death,” Rachel Hobbs, of Dayton, Ohio, said in a recent interview.

The Yorkie, named Uti-Puti Knopochka, was among 11 dogs — including three Dobermans, a Dalmatian and a golden retriever — flown into the country from Moscow via courier on Sept. 8. They were quarantined after they didn’t clear customs, with federal agents claiming they didn’t have the proper paperwork for rabies vaccinations and accusing the courier of smuggling two dogs in carry-on luggage.

The courier and the buyers of the dogs insist the papers were in order and have sued in federal court to get them released to the people

claiming they are the rightful owners. After the government argued on a Sept. 18 telephone conference that the dogs should be sent back to Russia, U.S. District Judge Frederic Block put off a decision on their fate.

“Make sure no harm comes to them until I sort all this out,” Block said.

Three days later, prosecutors wrote a letter to the judge saying Uti-Puti had “unfortunately passed away.”

The standoff has left the buyers, some of whom paid breeders thousands of dollars, in distress and the dogs in limbo. Hobbs said that while deciding on her purchase for an emotional support dog, the breeder in Belarus sent videos and photos

of the Yorkie wearing hair ribbons that got her hooked.

“I fell in love with her,” she said.

Hobbs still had hopes of bringing the Yorkie home until word came from the animal quarantine facility, The ARK at JFK, that the dog had died. A necropsy found that the dog tested positive for the highly contagious canine parvovirus.

A second Yorkie named Wonderful Baby Blue Diamond was under the care of a veterinary clinic suffering from an intestinal illness, according to court papers filed this week.

The plaintiffs are now claiming they were kept in the dark about the condition of the dogs at The Ark.

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