New York’s most notorious murderous dog has struck again, a year after his owner promised to have him put to sleep.
Syko, the blond Golden Shepherd, mauled several small dogs last summer, leaving one dead outside the French bookstore La Librairie des Enfants on the Upper East Side.
At the time, 58-year-old owner Lynda Hudson bowed to local pressure and said she would put the dog down and move her bookstore to a new location across town in the West Village.
But the Beast of the Upper Eastern River was filmed Friday morning during another attack, which left an elderly hiker lying flat on the pavement clutching her terrified spaniel as Syko’s owner dragged him away.
“As the woman continued walking, the dogs jumped out of the car and attacked her dog. She was thrown to the ground,” a shocked neighbour told Dailymail.com. “The husband hit his dogs and then drove off.”
An elderly woman lies on the sidewalk, desperately holding onto her spaniel as Syko and his sibling are dragged away from their targets
‘Syko’ – second from left and pictured with his parents and siblings – abused several smaller pups outside the quaint French bookstore La Librairie des Enfants on the Upper East Side
Syko lived with at least two of his German Shepherd siblings when he began attacking smaller animals in May last year.
Psychologist Julia Schafer was walking out of her building on May 3 when Syko and his two siblings grabbed her little Collie mix Tarsilla.
“The white one bit her and held her down,” Schafer told the New York Times.
Hudson agreed to pay the $850 vet bill, but it wasn’t until four days later that Laurie Davis, a local technician, screamed “at the top of her lungs” as the dogs pounced on her little white Cavachon named Chloe.
“My girlfriend and I were coming back from Central Park with our dogs… and the next thing I know, this white dog had Chloe in its mouth,” she said.
While Syko was busy with Chloe, his two siblings turned their attention to Davis’ friend’s little Maltipoo, who bit the little Muppet in the face.
Chloe survived but required emergency surgery and spent nearly three days in intensive care, Davis said.
She said a neighbor from her building “grabbed a wet towel and put pressure on her wound. That probably saved her life.”
But it wasn’t until August that the situation really came to a head, when Syko was triggered by a three-pound toy poodle named Baby walking past his door.
Personal trainer Akiba Tripp with her seven-pound toy poodle Baby who was killed by Syko near the bookstore when the owner suddenly opened the door
Psychologist Julia Schafer, also an Upper East Side local, said she was walking her small collie mix, Tarsila, out of her building on May 3 last year when tragedy struck.
Chloe and her owner Laurie Davis after Syko’s brutal attack on the tiny Cavachon in early May of last year. Davis sued Hudson in small claims court over the $6,000 vet bill that resulted from Chloe’s life-saving measures
According to owner Akiba Tripp, the German shepherd grabbed her puppy “in its mouth,” sank its teeth into her and broke her spine after Hudson opened the store door and walked out with Syko.
The personal trainer said people from nearby bars rushed to the dogs and tried to pull them apart on the blood-stained sidewalk. But Baby couldn’t move because she was paralyzed from the attack.
The little poodle had to be put down, but Hudson claimed that “Syko didn’t kill anyone,” and told the NY Post that it was Tripp who decided to ‘put that dog to sleep’.
Tripp said a veterinarian insisted her dog could not be saved and attacked Hudson’s story.
“How dare she keep saying that,” she snapped.
“That shows what a bad person this woman is. The dog’s spine was broken and the doctors said we couldn’t do surgery.”
Davis said Hudson blamed her “drunk” husband for the attack and then reneged on her promise to pay her $6,000 veterinary bills.
“She’s a pathological liar,” Davis claimed. “I have to tell you, all the dog moms and dads on the Upper East Side, they don’t want her here at all.
“This woman is causing me so much anxiety that I can’t even say what it means.”
Syko (center) the German Shepherd is known to have attacked at least five dogs
His handler pushed him back into the car as his last victim lay on the ground
One of Syko’s siblings was also given a severe dressing down as bystanders watched helplessly
Eventually one came to the woman’s aid and lifted the spaniel away from danger
Hudson apologized for Syko’s behavior in an email to neighbors and said she had done everything she could to curb Syko’s wild behavior.
“It’s so sad that this poor dog has been put to sleep and I am so sick!” she wrote.
‘I’ve lived here for almost nine years and my adult dogs have never attacked, but this white German Shepherd is special.
‘I called my vet yesterday and asked if he would put the dog to sleep, but the vet refused.’
But she said the vet referred her to a clinic in Brewster and that she would keep her other dogs at home in the future.
“My dogs won’t come into the store anymore, but the hate, insults and name calling has to stop,” she wrote.
In April of this year, the bookstore closed its doors due to a planned move to the West Village.
“I’m just glad (Hudson) is gone,” Tripp said at the time. “I don’t think she learned her lesson. She showed no remorse.”
Lynda Hudson, 58, opened La Librairie des Enfants in 2016. She owns an aggressive German Shepherd who abuses other animals
But just when residents thought it was safe to return to the neighborhood, Syko and his henchmen were filmed attacking the old lady and her spaniel.
“All the dogs were in the car with her husband,” the witness told Dailymail.com.
“And as the woman walked up the block, the dogs jumped out of the car and attacked her dog and she was knocked to the ground. The man hit his dogs and then drove away.”
The source said a “sister cafe” near the bookstore, where Hudson offers conversation classes for children and adults, will remain open for now.
“I don’t think she learned her lesson,” Tripp said. “She showed no remorse.”
Dailymail.com has contacted Ms Hudson for comment.