Tupper Lake dog attacks again
Same one has hurt others before
TUPPER LAKE — Village police say a dog that has attacked several other dogs and people in this town has struck again, injuring a dog that was in a car in the Family Dollar parking lot Sunday night.
Officer Connor Hesseltine was the responding officer and said that the attacking dog, a black German shepherd owned by Brian Demars of Tupper Lake, jumped out of one car and into another, attacking a 9-year-old Boston terrier-French bulldog mix named Copper. Police Chief Eric Proulx said the attacked dog is owned by Thomas Kriegel of Tupper Lake.
“The dog had gotten into another person’s vehicle and attacked that dog. It eventually got back outside of that vehicle and had that dog on the ground, and supposedly the owner of the German shepherd was able to get his dog off, and then he left the Family Dollar,” Hesseltine said.
Allison Schaffer, who is engaged to Kriegel and was in the Family Dollar at the time, said she was shopping when an employee yelled to her and Demars that the dogs were fighting.
Demars’ dog “was in my son’s car seat waiting for us to come out,” Schaffer said. “I didn’t even know what to think. You know. Panic.”
She said Demars ran out and pulled his dog off Copper.
Demars could not be reached for comment.
Hesseltine said Demars was issued tickets for having a dog running at large, and allowing or permitting a dog to kill or injure another dog.
Proulx said the victim dog was not killed but was injured.
Schaffer said Copper has four puncture wounds in the front of his neck and two in the back. He was taken the High Peaks Animal Hospital in Ray Brook and was put on antibiotics.
“He’s good now. The first day he was shaking. He was just freaked out,” Schaffer said. “That’s a big thing. He’s 9 years old. He’s my family dog.
“What if that was one of my kids?” Schaffer said. “I have a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old.”
Hesseltine said the court date for the tickets was Monday and that he is unsure of the outcome.
This dog has attacked other dogs before.
In March it attacked Dave Bedore’s 9-year-old beagle, Sadie-Jo, on McLaughlin Avenue, also biting Bedore’s hand as he pried the German shepherd’s jaws open to free his dog. Demars was issued the same two tickets then, too.
In September 2018 it attacked Mark Dewyea’s silky terrier, Jackson Browne, after escaping a police cruiser. Demars’ dog was shot in that incident and survived.
Hesseltine confirmed that this German shepherd has been involved in other violent incidents.