Many dogs that want to take a nice walk with their owners in Tompkins Square Park have suffered the effects of different types of drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and some have even been stuck with hypodermic needles due to the amount of drugs that they are dumped in green spaces due to the unbridled use of some people, the owners of the dogs denounced in a New York Post report.
“I was so angry, all I did was take her to the park ”, pointed out Fiorella García, of 28 years old, who has had to sort out how her dog has tested positive for cocaine and THC after running on the grassy knoll in the park during the summer. “He is a puppy. You don’t know what he’s getting himself into”.
For his part, Benton McClintock, of years, reported that his dog, which is a cross between a cavalier spaniel and a bichon, named Rusti, was injected several times with drugs that are thrown on the ground. He recounted that two weeks ago his dog stepped on a discarded needle near East 9th Street and Avenue A, just a few months after he was stuck with a syringe that was left near the park’s East 7th Street and Avenue A entrances.
However, cats have also been victims of rampant drug use in the park and the recklessness of leaving them lying around. It was reported that at least one cat suffered a puncture with a needle in recent months, the New York Post noted.
A witness named Gloria Martínez, from 28 years, recounted how the owner of a feline cursed and got angry after his cat stepped on a syringe.
“( The cat’s owner) was cursing. He was like ‘What the hell, you dirty sons of bitches, you’re always doing things in the paeque,’ said Martínez, who added that a group of drug addicts who were nearby moved away.
Residents have assured that Tompkins Square Park has had a reputation for this type of situation, with isolated cases of punctured dogs. However, the increase in drugs scattered in the park’s green areas has increased since the end of the pandemic, according to residents, after a wave of new laws that seek to reduce the consumption of opiates.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed in October 2021 a law that decriminalizes the possession and sale of hypodermic needles and eliminates the limit on the number of syringes that medical centers can provide. In addition, the New York police implemented an order for officers not to handcuff addicts who take drugs in public.
The Department of Sanitation’s syringe collection unit specified that it collected up to 69,692 needles discarded or discarded in the five boroughs of New York City in the fiscal year of 2022, being more than double the 32,252 needles collected in the same period last year.