RIDGEWOOD — Police rescued two abandoned dogs from a Ridgewood apartment building after neighbors said the animals had terrorized residents for years.
The large Cane Corso dogs were left behind when a former property manager at the 1894 Cornelia St. building moved out Saturday. They were discovered in the empty first-floor apartment Tuesday, residents said.
Abraham Aranda, the building's new manager, called the police Tuesday morning. The NYPD's Emergency Services Unit responded about 1:30 p.m., tranquilizing the dogs and taking them to a nearby shelter.
"These dogs have to get taken care of," said Aranda, who works for Dafnonas Estates management company.
Neighbors said they were afraid of the aggressive canines, which they said had previously killed a smaller dog in the building and had also bitten a tenant.
The dogs' owner, who Aranda said managed the building for about five years for Senator Realty, rarely took the dogs out for walks and sometimes let them roam the building's hallways, leading tenants to fear entering their home, residents said.
"The dogs have been terrorizing our neighborhood," said Scott Johnson, 42, a sculptor and father of two who lives next-door on Cornelia Street.
"There have been times when tenants can't get into the building because the dogs are in the hallway," Johnson continued. "Other tenants don't come out because they're scared."
An NYPD spokesman said no arrests had been made as of Tuesday evening.
Senator Realty did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Aranda said that after he discovered the dogs, police initially told him Tuesday morning to call the ASPCA, but when an ASPCA representative told him the organization would not get involved, Aranda once again asked cops for help and this time they responded.
The dogs were taken to Animal Care & Control of New York City's shelter on Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn, Aranda said.
The agency did not respond to requests for comment about the dogs' condition Tuesday night.
NYPD officers on the scene said they were frustrated to have to clean up the mess the dogs' owner had left behind.
"Why didn't they just take [the dogs] down to the pound? What did they leave [them] here for?" one of the Emergency Services Unit officers said. "This isn't our job."
