MONTICELLO – A 2-year-old pit bull from Monticello who was badly abused and rescued last year has been put down. 

Zola was saved mid-attack by Monticello police last May and suffered severe injuries. Her owner, Samuel Stanford, was charged and indicted for Aggravated Animal Abuse, a Class E Felony, for intentionally causing serious physical injury to the dog. 

Shelter Director and Founding President at Catskill Animal Rescue, Joanne Gerow, fostered Zola for over a month following the incident last year. Gerow said that they wanted to be very discretionary about the pit bull’s location at that time. 

“We tried our hardest and no stones were left unturned,” said Gerow. 

The Shelter Director said that handling Zola was “red alert stressful” as she was very aggressive with other animals. 

“I was as diligent as one can be,” she said, “but I was worried that if she got loose she could kill one of my animals. I was very fanatical as to where Zola would go.

Gerow said that if someone didn’t have the heightened level of awareness and training that is necessary when dealing with a dog like Zola, it could lead to a community catastrophe. 

She said that they kept trying to give Zola the best chance they could. Christian Losiewski, a dog trainer at Real World K9 LLC in Michigan, was someone she had known for many years and trusted in his ability to train dogs. 

So, Gerow said that they decided to take the 750-mile trek to Michigan and have Losiewski do whatever he could with her. She said that Losiewski noticed a lot of attributes at the beginning of the training that Zola could have talent for law enforcement, such as drug-sniffing and tracking. 

“The problem was that it was easy for her to divert her attention to a dog within 100 feet of her and only focus on that,” Gerow noted. 

However, despite the issues, Gerow said that Losiewski decided to adopt Zola as he tried the best he could to acclimate her to the environment. But Zola went after one of his senior dogs, as Gerow noted. 

Before the abuse that Zola faced last year, Gerow also said that she attacked another dog in Monticello. After several months of trying to work with her, Losiewski realized that it wasn’t going to work. Gerow said that there was an incident in which Zola bit an employee at Real World K9, that she was not aware of until recently. 

“We had agonizing discussions,” said Gerow. “But we didn’t want her to live her life in a cage and didn’t see a candidate that could give her the quality of life that she would need. My fear was if Zola got out, she’d pursue an animal to kill.”

Gerow was adamant about keeping the importance of public safety at the forefront and that the level of attentiveness needed for Zola was beyond anything she has seen. 

“The level of quality of life was not to be,” Gerow said. 

Gerow also believes that the abuse Zola faced last year could certainly have an impact on the aggression and it could be a form of PTSD. 

“The level of abuse that she endured was the worst I’ve seen in my 30 years of experience with animals,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. That level of trauma could have a permanent effect.”

Gerow made clear that this situation was not taken lightly and she put her guts into the dog. 

“It is not fun to fail,” she said. “We loved her very much and we tried very hard. I can’t be responsible for just one dog and I have a responsibility to public safety.”

Gerow noted that she did everything in her power to give Zola a chance and will make sure she is euthanized humanely. 

Gerow emotionally talked about how difficult a decision it was, saying, “I just didn’t want to take the chance of someone else being traumatized because she got loose and had another incident.”