STATEN ISLAND — Caesar the pit bull is blamed for the deaths of a Chihuahua, a Maltese and a cat — but his owners are arguing he deserves a fair trial.
The 7-year-old pit bull mix was ordered euthanized by the city after the latest attack in which he mauled the Chihuahua in New Dorp, Staten Island, the New York Daily News first reported.
But his owners Kristina and Douglas Panattieri filed paperwork in Manhattan Supreme Court this week to stop the city from killing their dog and asking that Caesar gets a fair trial.
"The City of New York has taken upon itself to ignore both state law and the constitution and basically take the attitude that the dog is guilty unless you can prove him innocent," their lawyer, Richard Rosenthal, told DNAinfo New York.
In May, Caesar escaped from the Panattieri's New Dorp yard, ripped apart a Chihuahua named Charlie and his left Charlie's elderly owner with 16 puncture wounds, the News reported.
Caesar also killed a Maltese dog in 2015 and a cat in 2010, the News reported.
Since the May attack, Caesar has been held in "solitary confinement" for about six weeks without exercise or human contact and was ordered to be executed by the city, Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal, dubbed "The Dog Lawyer," argued that despite the deaths and injuries caused by Caesar, the city doesn't have legal grounds to actually put him down.
"In order to euthanize, he has to cause either serious physical injury to a human or he has to have previously been declared a dangerous dog by a court within the past 24 months preceding the incident, and that did not occur," Rosenthal said.
Rosenthal added that the city is violating the dog's constitutional rights by placing the burden on the Panattieris to prove Caesar's innocence, instead of the city to prove his guilt.
"The City’s procedures adequately provide due process," a spokeswoman for the city's Law Department said in a statement.
A court date was set for Aug. 15 to hear the case.
