The eight-month-old puppy who escaped from her harness at a busy Manhattan subway station and ran onto the tracks last week was found dead on Wednesday, her owner said.
Paula Boodoosingh and her daughter Bianca Ottley had been taking Marley, a cocker spaniel puppy, to interview at dog sitter on May 23rd when the dog got loose from her harness at the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station's N/R/Q/W platform. The puppy ran into the N/Q tunnel towards 42nd Street, and NYC Transit held trains while transit workers and Boodosingh and Ottley searched for the pup. The mother and daughter even rode in the operator's cab in hopes of spotting her, but didn't find Marley.
Now, NBC New York reports that someone found Marley's body, near the platform where she went missing, on Wednesday night: "Simone Peterson said she looked from the edge of the platform and could see the dog's body underneath the rails."
Peterson, who retrieved the body, added, "The MTA refused to do anything, even when they knew for a fact exactly where this puppy was."
Apparently someone spotted a dog on the tracks at the station over the weekend and contacted the MTA, but didn't get a response.
Boodosingh's husband, Chamberlain Boodosingh, works for NYC Transit and searched for Marley on Friday morning, along with NYPD Transit Bureau Raymond Porteus, and on Friday night with his wife. According to the Daily News, "The couple were spotted by transit workers exploring the rails north of Herald Square with flashlights before cops coaxed them off the track bed at 42nd St., transit sources said."
The MTA told NBC New York they had no record of Marley's body being found, but Peterson said she "did not notify the MTA of it because 'they didn't deserve to know.'"
Ottley posted on Facebook, thanking the person who wrote about Marley and appearing to blame the MTA:
"Thank you everyone for your kind words actions and prayers but God and people can do but so much without the help of MTA track workers. Chambers Risked his job to go on the tracks with a stranger who almost got arrested as well and my mother and I [wandered] the platform and streets in the heat for hours on Sunday because my mom Paula M. Boodoosingh had a powerful dream she was right there waiting for us her dreams are always real only to leave an hour before she came out (we know she smelled us).
"This young lady alerted MTA but it fell on deaf ears. They continued to keep the trains going even though it was a Sunday afternoon And as a result Marley was killed. This tragic and untimely death of a young 8 month old with so much life to live. She was a perfect angel and God needed her back. She was too pure for this world and gave us enough kisses to last us a life time she was so beyond loved and she gave my family and I a joy we never knew we needed."
Ottley later added, "One track worker gave us her dead body. It is so awful tonight the plan was for a group of us to stay at the tracks all night long and call her name at the tunnel and demand and beg again MTA to search the tunnels since we cant go on tracks. I bought a mega horn and strangers bought dog whistles and toys. Strangers turned to family during this time and we are greatful....your prayers and thoughts were not in vain Marley fought a good fight."
The MTA requires dogs, aside from service animals, to be transported "in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers."
