Meet the Upper West Side’s most feared emotional support dog.
Sam, a 4-year-old rescue, is accused of biting someone so badly he needed antibiotics and attacking tenants, staff and delivery workers at his owners’ W79th St apartment building — and is the subject of a police report.
He has even prompted an anonymous PSA telling people not to ride the elevator with him.
Joe Venafro, who did dare to ride, said he was left with seven puncture wounds when Sam, a mix of unknown breeds, bit him on the stomach so hard that he called the cops.
Venafro walked into the elevator on Sept. 8 after dropping his daughter at school, sharing it with fellow tenant Inna Fayenson, a Harvard-educated attorney, and her two dogs — one of them Sam, her emotional support dog for stress and anxiety for the last three years.
What followed, as seen on a video obtained by The Post, was anything but neighborly.
“I walked into the elevator, and one of the dogs lunged at me; he was barking and snarling,” said Venafro, who once owned a dog in the city.
“I pressed against the side of the elevator, keeping my distance. I locked eyes with the dog and that kept him at bay. Then I looked up to see how many floors I had to go before I could get off the elevator. That was when the dog attacked me.
“The animal jumped up and lunged at my belly button. He bit right into a scar where, a few years ago, I had surgery for my Crohn’s disease.”
In the video of the dog attack Venafro, a Columbia journalism graduate and TV producer who has been embedded in Afghanistan, can be seen doubling over in pain and stumbling out of the elevator.
He went downstairs, reported the incident to the doorman, and called police.
Venafro turned down the ambulance and went to an urgent care where he received vaccines for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, had his wound cleaned and was given 10 days of antibiotics, he said.
And Sam was the subject of both a police report and a report from the doctor to the City’s Department of Health.
“I never expected to be attacked by this dog, unprovoked, on the way home, and sustain serious injuries for which I continue to receive medical care,” Venafro said.
But Sam’s co-owner Alan Katz, told The Post it was not a big deal. “No one is denying that the dog bit him,” Katz said.
“He needed a BandAid and he needed antibiotics. If it were [a big deal], he would have gotten admitted. No sutures were necessary. They cleaned the wound and sent him home.”
And his tangle with Sam does not seem to be an isolated incident.
Soon after Venafro was bitten, an anonymous tenant (Venafro said it was not him) slipped a note under doors of apartments in the building.
“Beware of dogs,” it warned. “The two dogs in [Sam’s owners’ apartment] have attacked tenants, staff and delivery people … Do not get on the elevator with them. Do not let them on the elevator if you are already on there.”
One tenant, who asked for anonymity, fearing heat from the building, told The Post, “The dog jumped at me and it was scary.
“If I’m on the elevator, I tell the woman with the dog that she can’t get on. Just in case, I keep an iPhone in my hand for protection.”
Fayenson denied to The Post that Sam and their other dog, Dolce, a 5-year-old Australian miniature shepherd, have attacked tenants, staff and delivery people in the building. She said, “Both of our dogs have been muzzled since the incident [with Venafro].”
And she said the dispute with Venafro after the biting had made the conditions Sam supports her for worse.
“I am suffering from severe stress, and my anxiety and other conditions, for which Sam has been an emotional support dog for 3 years, have been greatly exacerbated,” she said.
Katz said, “Sam is on a leash and lunges. Other dogs in the building do that.”
But a muzzle does not necessarily clamp down on the intimidation factor. A worker in the building found himself in an elevator with Sam and a dog walker.
“Sam was snarling and pulling on his leash,” the worker claimed. “At one point the dog-walker lost control of Sam. He lunged at me, hitting my leg with his mouth, which was muzzled. Sam wildly thrashed his mouth back and forth against my leg, trying to free himself of the muzzle and bite me.”
The building, apparently, is not Sam’s sole spot for muzzled attacks.
Video obtained by Venafro’s attorney Jeffrey K. Levine, best known for representing President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, captures Sam going after the rear of a man waiting for the M79 crosstown bus.
He was being walked by Katz on October 10 when he broke free from Katz’s grip on the leash and lunged at the man.
“I was tending to our other dog, holding onto Sam and lost my grip,” said Katz. “Sam was muzzled and lunged at the guy but he couldn’t do anything.
“The man was frightened, but nothing else happened. I talked to him, and I apologized, and we went on our way.”
Katz said the support dog was himself “triggered” by the noise of “a cart with wheels.”
Levine, Venafro’s attorney, predicted a lawsuit. And adding insult to injury, Venafro said, “I was out of town for a couple of days and the dog lunged at my son. Understand, I love dogs. I grew up with a dog. I just don’t like dogs that lunge at me, my neighbors and my family members in the building where we live.”