Meet Sean Casey — pit bull hunter.
The city’s Animal Care and Control unit has been to Midwood six times looking for the vicious pit bulls that have terrorized neighborhood pet lovers for months — but Sean Casey, who runs a Kensington Animal Rescue center, has scoured the area for the them more than 30 times, and promises to keep looking for the hell hounds until the dastardly dogs are in custody.
“The difficulty is that these dogs are potentially roaming,” noted Casey, who says he and his staff have been setting traps and checking the Long Island Rail Road tracks around Brooklyn College two to three times a day. “But we’re pretty confident we’ll have them soon.”
Sean Casey knows a thing or two about pit bulls: dozens of them can be found at his E. Third Street shelter near Caton Avenue.
Yet he harbors no ill will toward them — even the two that killed one small dog, mutilated another and have snapped at dog walkers along Avenue I near E. 18th Street since the summer.
“Pit bulls can be the greatest dog in the world or they can be monsters — they can be whatever their owner wants them to be,” said Casey, who owns a pit bull himself. “But in this case, some idiot probably didn’t take his responsibility seriously and this is what we end up with.”
At any given time, Casey’s small Animal Rescue facility, which he supports through grants, donations and the proceeds from the pet supply store he runs next door, is home to roughly 20 cats, 40–50 dogs (including 35 pit bulls), 10 snakes, 10 turtles, and 20–30 hamsters and guinea pigs. At one point, he even had an alligator abandoned by its owner.
“A lot of people buy these creatures when they’re young without realizing its going to grow up,” said Casey, who sent the four-foot long alligator to a haven in Pennsylvania because it couldn’t be kept in New York. He routinely turns down calls to save monkeys, boa constrictors, iguanas, ocelots, sharks and other exotic animals because the city stipulates that one can’t own wild animals — alligators included.
Still, neighbors are praising Casey’s ability to go where the city will not.
“He’s like Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with volunteers,” said Kensington Allen Kirson, noting that Casey helped him look for Captain, his beloved parrot, when it flew the coop — and was even willing to climb a ladder propped between two vans to reach a Captain look-alike found perched in a Bay Ridge tree.
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.
