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A disabled New Yorker’s emotional support dog was brought into the Big Apple pound when she had a medical emergency – and when she tried to get the pup back he was adopted and already had a new name, The Post learned.
“I literally fell on my knees hearing this,” said Denise McCurrie, 51, of her beloved 6-year-old Miniature Schnauzer, formerly called Roscoe and who has lived with her since childhood.
“It was a nightmare.”
McCurrie, a former Wall Street underwriter who has been disabled since leaving the company in 2008 following the housing market collapse, has long suffered from depression and anxiety and called on the 16th, the Post said.
McCurrie said she lived alone and when the NYPD and a team of emergency doctors responded to her Bronx home, she asked her to take Roscoe with her while she was being rushed to the hospital to make sure he was cared for during her recovery.
The pooch was taken to the Manhattan branch of the city’s beleaguered Animal Care Center, which was shaken by a number of scandals, including documented neglect, misguided behavioral analysis, and decisions to euthanize animals with treatable diseases.
McCurrie said she called ACC several times from the hospital, where she stayed for about two weeks, to tell them that she owned the dog and was receiving medical attention. She was jumping around from person to person and eventually said they were going to “investigate” but on April 19, she learned that her dog had been accepted into one of the ACC rescue groups and already had a new name.
“I was told I wouldn’t get my dog back,” said McCurrie.
“I had to take it off my screensaver because it was just too painful to see. We were inseparable. My dog and I went everywhere together, we went shopping together in the supermarket, I always put him in this little stretcher. We were always together. ”
Rep. Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan), who is trying to help McCurrie, said she was “appalled” when she found out what had happened.
“It was so sad it could happen to anyone who lives alone and has a medical emergency and has an animal that needs to be looked after during this time,” Rosenthal told the Post.
“It really is a tragic story.”
The ACC said Roscoe has “no identification or no microchip” and was adopted or euthanized three days after arriving on the 19th.
“ACC does not have the dog in its possession. We reached out to the rescue group that housed the dog and they are currently consulting with a lawyer on the situation, ”a spokesman said in a statement.
It’s not clear what information the NYPD ACC provided when they dropped the dog, but at the time Roscoe was being treated for a chronic ear infection and had a tube that drained fluid from his ear, McCurrie said. But to the officers who responded, the dog appeared to be malnourished and in poor condition, the police said.
They added that there was also a man at McCurrie’s house who told police he wanted to hurt Roscoe, but McCurrie emphatically and repeatedly denied that anyone was living with her or anyone else at the time, calling the claim “nonsensical “.
The ACC, which has every dog examined by vets upon admission, didn’t say there was evidence of neglect or cruelty upon Roscoe’s arrival – just that he needed “medical attention”.
The Post reviewed Roscoe’s medical records, which showed he was receiving regular veterinary care and was in good health other than the ear infection.
McCurrie said she was ready to do “anything” to get Roscoe back, who is her “main reason for living”. She said she will pay all fees to the rescue who adopted him to cover any expenses and is even willing to have home visits if there is any concern about how she will look after him.
“The only thing I do all day is to make a phone call and try to somehow get somewhere,” said the broken-hearted dog mom.
“I’m still fighting for this little dog, it’s the only thing I do.”
