"Faith," a resident of downtown Hoboken, says that on Sunday, Nov. 11, she heard "hours of growling and sounds of struggle" behind a neighbor’s house.
Knowing the neighbor had two dogs there, she called police, but according to her, they never came.
Three days later, the health department came and picked up the lifeless body of one of the dogs, which had bruises all over it. The other dog, a white Jack Russell terrier, was alive but had blood around its eyes.
The Jack Russell was taken to the SPCA Humane Society in Newark to be watched for rabies, and is still there. The other dog was disposed of. And now Faith believes one dog killed the other and that the owner had not been taking proper care of them.
The Health Department says there is no evidence that the owner, a woman who lives out of town, is at fault. The woman kept the dogs in a fenced-in area behind her business in downtown Hoboken. Health Officer Frank Sasso said that the department had responded to complaints about the animals being left outdoors in the back yard in the past, and that they saw no evidence of abuse. Sasso said he will meet with the dogs’ owner this week so that he can find out how the dog died.
Sasso said that inspectors saw that the animals always had food and water, and there was a doghouse they could sleep in.
Nevertheless, the owner of the animals was not present when the SPCA removed them Nov. 14. On Nov. 16, the Hoboken Health Department mailed the woman a letter apprising her of the status of her pets.
"As you are aware," the letter stated, "the Humane Society of Newark, NJ removed one live dog and one deceased dog from your premises on Wednesday, Nov. 14. Neither dog was currently licensed in the city of Hoboken. The surviving dog will remain at the Humane Society for a period of seven days. If you wish to retrieve the dog and return it to Hoboken, it must be vaccinated for rabies, and a Hoboken license must be obtained within one week. Please call this office at 420-2375 if you require additional information."
The woman did call the SPCA to find out about getting the Jack Russell back, Sasso said, but the dog was not in good enough health yet. Sasso said that he made calls to the woman to find out how the dogs came to end up in such a bad state, but there was no answer at her number. This past Thursday, when one of Sasso’s inspectors posted a note on the owner’s door telling her the dog will be destroyed this coming Wednesday if she doesn’t pick him up, the owner finally called Sasso’s office and made plans to meet with him this coming Monday or Tuesday.
Sasso said that right now, he has no evidence that the woman in any way abused the dogs or that one of them killed the other. He said he is hoping to find out this week.
But Faith said that she saw the Jack Russell’s teeth clenched around the other dog’s neck, and that the other dog was not fighting very hard.
Faith said that the dogs lived together in the back yard for all of the seven years she has lived there. "The Jack Russell would protect its property," she said. "The other one would come up and try to be petted and stuff."
So why would one of them suddenly turn on the other?
Sasso hopes to get more clues this week.
Meanwhile, the owner may pick up the Jack Russell after she talks to Sasso. If not, the dog might be euthanized. Sasso stressed that there is no evidence that the woman is at fault. He said that she said she cares a lot about the dogs and seemed upset about what had happened.
But Faith said the dead dog was left for days. By the time his body was picked up, there were flies all over it, as evidenced by photos Faith took. The dog was found in the doghouse, and Faith said that perhaps he had crawled in there to die.
Another neighbor who was familiar with the situation said that he believed that the woman did care about her dogs. But he said that the dog probably wouldn’t have died if she’d taken better care of them. He said that he believes that she will do a better job of taking care of the remaining dog if she gets him back.
The owner’s number is unlisted. No one answered a phone or a knock on the door at the business she owns in town.
Animals found in Hoboken are brought to the Humane Society shelter in Newark rather than the Assisi Center in Jersey City because Hoboken started contracting with the Humane Societies a year ago. Sasso said they did this because the Newark shelter has always had staff available for 24 hours, while for a long time the Jersey City shelter had often stopped sending staff after 4 p.m.