Posted on 01/28/2012 1:22:15 PM PST by smokingfrog
A down-on-his-luck soap-opera actor took his own life this week after he was forced to put his beloved dog to sleep under pressure from his New York City condo, friends said.
Nick Santino euthanized his dog, Rocco, on Tuesday, on Santino's 47th birthday. That night, his guilt over the gut-wrenching decision became too much to bear.
"Today [Tuesday], I betrayed my best friend and put down my best friend," he wrote in a suicide note, according to close friend Stuart Sarnoff. "Rocco trusted me, and I failed him. He didn't deserve this."
Santino -- a struggling actor whose TV credits include "All My Children" and "Guiding Light" -- adopted pit bull Rocco from a shelter several years ago.
The Brooklyn-born performer, who was raised in an orphanage and foster homes, soon began to write about his pet on Facebook, saying, "I did not rescue Rocco, Rocco rescued me."
But in 2010, his building at 1 Lincoln Plaza announced strict new dog regulations, including a ban on pit bulls. The ban did not apply to pit bulls already in the building, but friends and neighbors said Santino began to feel harassed.
"People were complaining about his dog," according to neighbor Kevan Cleary, 63, an adjunct professor at Brooklyn Law School. "It was open season on him."
Rocco could not ride in the main elevators and was not allowed to be left in the apartment alone for more than nine hours.
Santino then was threatened with a $250 fine for having a barking dog, neighbors said.
The building's management refused to comment Friday.
After months of increasing anguish, Santino had the healthy dog put to sleep Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at myfoxdfw.com ...
Nobody forced him to put his dog to sleep. He could have moved. Sell the co-op, buy a house in Bayonne.
“asinine busybodies.”
Is that fair? Are we all obligated to live with an increasingly aggressive pit bull next to us, when his presence was against condo rules? Does it make me an asinine busybody to expect everyone in the condo building to keep the agreed rules?
Let a ghost dog haunt all of them, forever.
According to my reading, it was not against the new rules in the instance of his dog, since he was present beforehand, but that's when what sounds like specific harassment began. I saw no indication of aggressive behavior in the article. It does appear that the dog may have barked when left alone for any length of time.
This is a sad story on many levels.
A sensitive young man says that ‘the dog rescued him’ and clearly was very attached to the animal...a pit bull.
He must have overlooked or denied the fact that pit bulls have the reputation of being aggressive to strangers, children and even their owners - resulting in most people being fearful of them.
Condos and apartments are not good environments for any dogs - because they bark when left alone, smell and sometimes bite.
It is selfish to own a dog in shared buildings as it is selfish to resent those who do own dogs - when the rules allow it.
We often make mistakes in our choices - this tragedy will not change attitudes in the survivors or future dog owners.
While I agree with you that pets should not be considered a human’s equal, some people don’t have, for whatever reason, the capacity to form deep human friendships.
For some people, it is a life of complete solitude or some level of interacting with a pet.
In this case, denying this man his dog left him without options.
Can never understand these selfish people. Find a place for the dog before you end your miserable life, you POS!
As with the other trends in this decline, I’ll just watch the show. Wow. Those of you with any sense remaining, there’s the other, healthier side of it (after repudiation, fall of the insane, contemporary socio-political class, currency adjustment, etc.). Have fun. Enjoy the slide.
Not everyone’s life follows the same arc. Some people experience events and other people who leave them damaged, disinclined or even incapable of bonding closely with another human. Being able to bond with an animal, and NOT becoming a cruel or destructive person is a positive adaptation, not a failure.
Same for us gals.
Absolutely.
Though I did mean, ‘he’, as in general humanity.
Well he did.
At the vet’s.
Then in the ground.
“I know you laughed, I heard you laugh, you laughed you laughed and laughed and then you left,...” —Napoleon XIV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4
“In this case, denying this man his dog left him without options.”
I hear what you are saying, I just think it is indicative that he had serious problems when he decided he had no other options.
I stand corrected, I am no fan of retroactive rules.
Bonding with an animal instead of someone you can actually procreate with is not a positive adaptation (in the darwinian sense).
I feel very sad, not just for the individual, but society, because this is where liberalism leads.
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