Two pit bulls have bitten four people in the Dix Hills section of Huntington, Long Island, according to neighbors who say the dogs have repeatedly escaped from their home and attacked a jogger, her husband, a child on an e-bike, and a good Samaritan who tried to help. The dogs' owner is now due in Suffolk County District Court on Friday, where a judge will decide whether the animals meet the legal threshold for a dangerous dog designation.
Larry Ballereau told ABC7 New York that the trouble began last month, when he said the two pit bulls went after a child riding an e-bike. Weeks later, on August 10, Ballereau said his wife was mauled and bitten by the same dogs while she was out jogging on Blossom Street. She suffered injuries to her shoulder and back, according to Ballereau, and a good Samaritan who stopped to help her was also bitten in the process.
Ballereau said he was attacked himself while trying to help his wife, describing the dogs as gnawing at him as he told them to stop. He recalled bleeding, being knocked over, and being left with scratches and bruises everywhere. Video provided to the outlet's Eyewitness News reportedly showed Ballereau being attacked by the two dogs, which he described as vicious predators.
Police and Town Officials Respond
Police responded to reports that a couple had been bitten by dogs that had gotten loose, per the station's report. The dogs' owner, Anastasia Carnaras, was issued a notice to comply for code violations tied to animal containment and control, and the Town of Huntington served her with three dangerous dog articles on behalf of the local district court.
Carnaras said the dogs have been kept by her family for 25 years and disputed the characterization of them as vicious. She said the animals escaped after a back gate on Penn Drive was accidentally left open — once by a landscaper and, in a separate incident, by a realtor. Since then, Carnaras said she has installed new locks on the gates and is looking for a behaviorist to work with one of the dogs. She added that the town has assured her it is not looking to take her dogs away.
What The Court Can — And Cannot — Order
Neighbors including Patrick Stanton have said residents must fight both the town and Suffolk County to resolve what they see as an ongoing safety problem, and Dix Hills residents plan to attend Friday's district court hearing to voice their concerns. But state law sharply limits what a judge can actually do. Under New York Agriculture and Markets Law § 108(24), a dog is legally defined as dangerous if it attacks a person or animal without justification and causes physical injury, or behaves in a way that would cause a reasonable person to fear imminent serious injury.
If the court finds the dogs meet that threshold, judges have a specific menu of remedies available under Agriculture and Markets Law § 123, including mandatory spaying or neutering, muzzling, microchipping, secure confinement, or liability insurance up to $100,000. Humane euthanasia remains on the table only if aggravating circumstances, such as serious injury or a documented history of vicious attacks, are proven in court.
What the judge cannot do is order the dogs banished from the neighborhood or the town, even though that is exactly what many residents are demanding. A 2007 precedent, Town of Huntington v. Mazzone, established that local courts hearing dangerous dog petitions cannot order the complete removal of a dog from a municipality, since judicial remedies are strictly confined to those authorized under § 123, according to FindLaw. State law also bars municipalities from targeting specific breeds like pit bulls with local bans, meaning Huntington cannot pass a rule singling out the breed even amid public pressure, per Agriculture and Markets Law § 107(5).
Financial and Legal Stakes for the Owner
If the dogs are formally declared dangerous, the owner would be strictly liable for victims' medical expenses under § 123(10), removing the need for anyone bitten to prove negligence in order to recover healthcare costs. Ongoing negligence carries its own escalating penalties: an owner who negligently allows a dog to bite someone faces civil fines up to $400, but negligently allowing a dog already declared dangerous to cause serious injury becomes a criminal misdemeanor, punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and as much as 90 days in jail.
In Huntington, containment violations like the ones cited against Carnaras are enforced by the Division of Animal Control under the town's Department of Public Safety, which runs the Town Animal Shelter in East Northport and can route cases to either the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication or district court. Suffolk County health officials also require that all animal bites be reported, triggering a mandatory 10-day quarantine for the biting dog to monitor for rabies regardless of its vaccination history.
Dog bite injuries are not rare in New York: state health data shows they lead to more than 6,000 emergency department visits and roughly 315 hospitalizations statewide each year. Research examining more than a decade of state health records found such injuries occur most often among school-age children and residents of lower-density suburban areas — a pattern that mirrors the mix of victims described in Dix Hills, from a child on an e-bike to adults on a morning jog.
