The day before George Floyd was murdered by police officers in Minnesota, a man named Christian Cooper was trying to bird-watch in Central Park. A dog owned by Amy Cooper was running around without a leash, causing havoc, and so Christian Cooper asked Amy Cooper to leash her dog, and he offered her dog a treat. She called the cops on him and said to the 911 operator that an African-American man was “threatening” her. The entire time she was on the phone with 911, two things happened: Christian filmed her performance AND she choked the f–k out of her dog. In the aftermath of the Central Park Karen video going out, the animal rescue took Amy Cooper’s dog back, she lost her job and she’s being investigated. But wait. She got her dog back. Jesus.
Amy Cooper — infamously dubbed Central Park “Karen” after calling the police to lie and say a black man was attacking her — now has her dog back … just 10 days after her phony call.
The animal rescue, Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue Inc., announced a vet determined the dog was perfectly healthy and — after law enforcement refused to take the dog in their custody — decided to return the dog at the owner’s request. You’ll recall, action was swift back on Memorial Day after Amy retaliated against a black man in the harshest way possible after the man, a bird watcher, complained her dog was off-leash despite a law requiring dogs to be on-leash in Central Park from 9 AM to 9 PM.
As we reported … what happened next is one of the most disgusting acts you’ll see after she asks the man to stop recording her. He didn’t. She then threatened to call NYPD and “tell them there’s an African-American man threatening my life.” The video spread like fire … and it wasn’t long before she was shamed into returning the dog to the animal rescue. She also issued an apology before the financial firm where she worked at firing her saying, “We do not tolerate racism of any kind at Franklin Templeton.”
This is sickening. She was on camera abusing that dog, and when people found her Instagram (in the immediate wake of Christian Cooper’s video, this is a dupe), they found that the dog had tons of mysterious “injuries” all involving the dog running around Central Park without a leash. She is, at best, an irresponsible dog owner and at worst she’s committing animal cruelty regularly through her own actions or through neglect. Besides that, dumpster racists shouldn’t get to own pets. She’s clearly an abusive a–hole who wanted to watch the cops murder a black man for the crime of telling her to leash her f–king dog. This whole thing is disgusting.
Lemme tell you how whiteness works:
After intentionally trying to get a black man killed by filing a police report, Amy Cooper asked for her previously confiscated dog back.
And got it.
She threatened @NYCockerRescue and they caved. pic.twitter.com/I8WOCGTkAw
— Hassan Sayyed (@HausUrban) June 3, 2020
Photos courtesy of Steshka Willems via Pexels and Pixabay via Pexels, screencap from video.
Ugh that’s disheartening, I’ve volunteered in animal rescue for years, and we don’t give animals back to abusive owners…shady, shady, shady.
She probably threatened to sue.
Then they should say that. “We had to give the animal back because the owner threatened us and we don’t have enough donations to take care of the animals and deal with a lawsuit.”
Because if they don’t then never happened.
I had almost applied to the SPCA last week (but I might have a job coming up so it’s moot now) and it’s because of shit like this that I just can’t. I am glad I didn’t apply. I just can’t deal with people treating animals like shit, and I know it wouldn’t be good for my mental health dealing with shitty people like this woman.
bless animal rights activists, because I know I couldn’t do it either. alternating between rage and despair at how people treat animals. I don’t understand how people that are dedicated to it preserve their mental health. I know that I could not
It’s both great for my mental health (animals are the best medicine) and also soul crushing (humans are F*cking evil) – the community of animal lovers and rescuers is what makes is easier to get through the bad stuff.
This is awful. She was not at all concerned with the dog’s well being while choking him during her performance art piece on the phone w/the police ACTING as if she was in danger. This dog is not safe in her care. She was illegally walking him off lead & in Central Park he could quickly become in danger. Walking up on an aggressive dog or a person who might also be aggressive or scared & might lash out at an unleashed dog. I believe she should be charged for her false report.
It’s something new I’ve discovered: assholes can have perfectly lovely dogs. I rented a room in January from a woman with three HIDEOUS personalities and one nice one, and she had a perfectly lovely yorkie. That being said: EFF YOU AMY COOPER!
The rescue is complicit as fas as I’m concerned. Next thing we know shexll be back working at that job. Or some other place similar, sooner than later.
Sickening.
My heart and spirit broke when I saw this yesterday. Poor Henry. I just know there were people lined up to adopt him. No way was the only option that the NYPD take custody of him.
What a hellscape we live in.
I don’t know if anyone saw the video yesterday of a white man in a park assault a young girl for taping up little posters honoring George Floyd. His rage was stunning to me — he seems cut from the same cloth is this lady. We have some seriously angry, miserable people among us. I cannot for the life of me imagine living that way.
It’s extremely discouraging she got her dog back. Poor pup.
Some people speculated that she would get her dog back. I think she has ties to the animal rescue program that gave her the dog to begin with.
Thank you for informing us.
The only consolation is that all eyes will be on her and the pup..neighbors, strangers in the park…a city full of concerned dog lovers keeping watch.
Awful.
Of course she got the dog back. Next thing… a new job.
She should have been brought up on charges.
Girl Ninja that’s a great point. Why wasn’t she charged with making a false report, if nothing else?? Oh wait. I know why.
I guess I’m in the minority when I think she should have gotten her dog back. To preface this, I worked at a large animal shelter for three years as a full time employee, so I have seen some stuff. I didn’t think she was abusing that dog in the video, she was trying to prevent it from getting loose, if the dog was examined, and was deemed healthy, and wasn’t showing signs of abuse, it should go back to it’s home. We have bigger things to worry about, like the millions of animals a year that are euthanized at shelters because they aren’t adopted. As far as all of those people lined up to adopt Henry, they can go to any NY shelter and adopt a dog that is going to be euthanized THAT DAY. Jesus.
Choking a dog is not proper restraint. It’s also neglectful to allow a dog to run loose in areas that aren’t fenced, especially in a city where traffic could be nearby. Add that to all the injuries she has already posted about the dog having, she is not a good dog owner and probably should have had the dog already removed.
*sigh* okay, but it clear that you have no idea, with your self righteous mansplaining about pRopER ReSTraInT, what animal rescue is really about. We are literally euthanizing thousands of animals every single day in the US because they don’t have homes, and you want an animal rescue to give up a desperately needed safe space to an animal because you think the owner is a douche. Cool, how about we focus our energy on animals that are actually living in nightmares, and not animals that were held too roughly for a couple of minutes because the owner was distraught. Is that cocker spaniel fed? yes. Is he exercised? yes. is he well groomed? yes. Is he showing abusive injuries? No.
Please tell me again why he should be taken out of a home?
Saying she should get the dog back on the basis of you have never met her nor do you have any association with anyone involved, and judging she wasn’t choking her dog when we have all seen that video, and ignoring her IG posts, and then claiming you worked in animal rescue and she should get the dog back on the basis of “rescues are overwhelmed” . . . This is why animal abuse happens. You and your attitude and your desire to share your attitude are the reason.
And yes I’ve worked with rescues and fosters in towns with a hell of a lot less resources than NYC, in a word, ZERO!
“your self righteous mansplaining about pRopER ReSTraInT”????? da fuk is this nonsense?
Lonnie Tinks- I agree with you.
Lonnie, I’m with you. Volunteered in animal rescues for years and I’ve also seen a few things. Amy Cooper’s actions that day were appalling, but the dog seems well cared for. He’s a derpy, active little spaniel who wanted to get back off leash and go to Christian Cooper who was offering him treats (which is actually a genius way to get people to leash their dogs!), that’s why he was squirming around and she was freaking out and stringing him up a bit, but the dog was not in danger. Rescue groups have their hands full with FAR worse than this. The dog is legally hers, so there’s that as well. I’m pretty confident they would have put up a fight about giving him back if they suspected she was abusive or neglectful. And please…letting your dog run off leash is inconsiderate, but hardly the crime of the century.
The dog was squirming because he was CHOKING. If you watch he was jumping up because his front paws couldn’t reach the ground and he was trying not to get strangled. I just re-watched it to make sure I remembered correctly and it just gets worse each time. You don’t pull a dog or any animal up like that with a collar around its neck – what a f-cking idiot.
The Karen Defense Brigade is out on force.
I think its okay that the dog was returned to her, but I sincerely hope that she is charged with some kind of hate or racial crime for threatening to turn him in. They need to fine $$$ her big time or do something because her actions were appalling. And I’m also glad she was fired from the job. What a ridiculous thing to do….threaten him because he was black, wow. She’s got to be a piece of work, don’t you think?
Isn’t a basic part of dog care making sure your dog is on a leash when it is supposed to be? She’s on video not ensuring the safety of her dog and the people/animals around her dog. But I guess that’s okay when you’re a rich white woman. I wonder if she’ll leash her dog if she ever ventures into the Ramble again.
This sickens me.
This sucks.
Epic frigging fail on the rescue’s part. Way to reward a racist act. I will never believe that returning that little dog to her was the only choice in this matter. If for some reason it was, go public that you cannot afford to legally fight for this animal due to your nonprofit status and fund raise. This was a national story. People would have donated. Gross, negligent, blind, easy-way-out choice. Fail, fail, fail.
You’ve got to be f***ing kidding me… This is sickening. She was caught on tape abusing him, now she gets him back?? If this isn’t white privilege I don’t know what is.
Ugh, not happy about this at all.
If a video showing her dog being choked won’t convince Amy’s apologists, nothing will. Since Amy clearly wasn’t feeling threatened by Christian, she could have allowed that machiavellianism of hers that was used to fake a distress call to the police to take a sec to put her dog on the leash. She was calculating enough to perform on the phone but didn’t care enough about the dog’s comfort while choking it. If Amy lacked the care and self-control in front of a camera, imagine this peachy lady when she’s not being filmed.
That poor dog will keep having “accidents”…
Totally… I was even more broken-hearted when I heard about that… I also saw some guy wrote on NYT to mention she let the dog unleashed all the time in the Ramble area, she’s very irresponsible; someone this callous shouldn’t be allowed to care for another being.
He looks like my little Cocker Spaniel! I saw the video and knew what he was right away, and it made me sad to see a dog like that treated that way! When my Rainbow goes somewhere I don’t want her to without her leash, I always pick her up and carry her like a baby. She’s not a huge fan of it, but I could never grab her by the collar like that! I’d rather she wiggle around in my arms than not be able to breathe.
Can’t imagine what that poor little dog was thinking when he realized he was going home with her again. 🙁
This makes me so sad. I hope that all New Yorkers will watch for this bitch and document any abusive behavior they see. I hope that every time she walks her dog she is met with animal lovers silently recording her. Yes, there are many animals abused and put down every day. But that is a separate and horrible issue and should not mean that this little dog has to be returned to an abusive owner.