2 heroic canines put down n
‘Too aggressive’
The two stray dogs who became heroes when they foiled a Queens mugging this month were sadly euthanized after city officials decided they were “too aggressive” for adoption.
Animal lover George Petruncio desperately tried to save the German shepherd and the pit bull after they chased down a teen mugger in Springfield Park on Feb. 7, but the pooches met their demise Friday.
The city “never gave the dogs a chance,” Petruncio told The Post. “They did a good thing and this is how you repay them? It’s garbage.”
The dog devotee from Sewell, NJ, said the deaths were just the latest of the city’s animal blunders.
“You already knocked off Charlotte the groundhog, Lefty the deer and the bull in Queens,” he said. “I wanted to adopt them. I am really angry.”
In 2014, Charlotte was filling in for her mate, Staten Island Chuck, when she took a fatal fall from Mayor de Blasio’s arms on Groudhog Day and died. Lefty, the one-antlered deer, died as the city tried to transport it from a Harlem park in December. On Tuesday, a bull was killed when it escaped a Queens slaughterhouse.
The Queens dogs were sent to Animal Care & Control in early February after tackling the 15-year-yearold mugger who had runn off with a woman’s purse.
Cops in the 105th Precinctcinct — where the canine heroicsroics took place — had reachedched out to ACC after thee at-attempted mugging in ann ef-effort to connect the dogsdogs with rescue groups, accord-ording to sources.
“The dogs deserved a sec-second chance because of howhow they helped out,” a policeolice source said. “It just doesn’tesn’t seem like justice was servedrved for these dogs.”
But ACC officials saidid it was up to the Health De-Department, which droppedpped the guillotine Friday be-because staffers feared thethe dogs might attack someone.one.
“After a comp re hens iv ens ive assessment by an animal-malbehavioral specialist, thethe two dogs that mauleded a teenager were determinedined too aggressive to be placedaced at rescue organizationss or put up for adoption,” said Health Department spokes-kesman Julien A. Martinez..