A 68-year-old man has been charged with animal cruelty after authorities found him driving with two dogs tethered to the rear of his vehicle in Queens.
Dan Bujor, residing in a school bus parked in Long Island City, was apprehended on Sunday. He faces multiple charges including animal cruelty, failure to provide sustenance, and driving without a license, authorities reported.
Upon his arrest, Bujor allegedly explained to investigators, “I tied the dogs to the car because I did not want them pooping inside the car.”
A witness observed Bujor navigating a Volkswagen Passat at a slow pace near 11th Street and 43rd Avenue in Long Island City around 6 p.m. on Sunday, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The dogs, identified as Marzipan, a 2-year-old German Shepherd mix, and Nougat, a pit bull mix aged between 2 and 4 years, were leashed to the trunk and following the vehicle, as detailed in the criminal complaint.
Piamsook Homrod, 43, who reported the incident to 911 and was named in the complaint against Bujor, told the Daily News, “Even though it was going slowly, the dogs looked very tame, timid, and a little scared.”
A group of about eight people, including Homrod, tried to stop Bujor by knocking on his window, jumping in front of his car and attempting to free the animals as he drove for roughly two blocks with the distraught canines running behind.
As Bujor passed through the intersection, Nougat’s leash fell off the car and the suspect pulled over to the side of the road to wrangle the animal, Homrod said.
“When the other guys, other civilians, were trying to stop him, talk to him, stop the car, the guy who was dragging the dogs, he was saying, like, ‘Don’t worry, they are used to it.’ And then he grabbed the dogs back inside the car and he drove away,” Homrod said.
Bujor had fled the scene by the time police arrived, but officers quickly found him at his school bus parked nearby — with some help from Homrod.
“We decided to grab our car and circle around the neighborhood to search for him,” she said. “I know it’s not so safe (to do that), but it’s very fortunate that we found his car. He lives right around the corner from where everything happened. He has like an RV, a little school bus turned into a mobile home.”
Bujor told investigators he had borrowed the Volkswagen in order to purchase gas for his school bus, a law enforcement source said.
He obtained the German Shepherd mix in Pennsylvania and took in the pit bull mix after it was abandoned by a neighbor.
“Everyone knows my dogs,” Bujor is quoted as saying in the complaint. “Everyone loves my dogs.”
The animals were taken to the E. 92nd St. ASPCA animal hospital and adoption center in Manhattan, where Marzipan was treated for a ruptured left eardrum and Nougat received treatment for abrasions on her paw pads and wrists, as well as inflammation of the skin between her toes and diarrhea.
“There is no reasonable guy who would hook their dogs to the car like that,” Homrod said. “Even though he says that the dogs are used to it, I don’t believe that the dogs are happy with what he’s doing. I saw the pit bull that got loose, he was drooling like crazy.”
The charges against Bujor are not bail eligible and he was released following his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on Monday.
