Exclusive | Pup fatally struck by speeding e-bike and grieving UES owner cant get justice thanks to legal loophole: Just heartbreaking

A tiny pooch was fatally struck by an e-bike in a sidewalk hit-run on the Upper East Side on Memorial Day weekend – but the dog’s grieving owner says she can’t get justice for the pup because of a loophole in state law.Local resident Sarah Grant’s 18-month-old shih tzu-poodle mix Fennel – who Grant rescued in December – was out with a dog walker when she was struck on the sidewalk by an e-bike rider on East 96th Street near Third Avenue in Manhattan just before 6 p.m.that Sunday, her owner said.“She was not very responsive,” Grant told The Post, recalling the moment her dog walker rushed Fennel back to her nearby apartment building.

“Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she was barely moving.It was just heartbreaking.”Fennel sustained a traumatic brain injury and severe skull fracture and was euthanized hours later.But when her owner attempted to file a police report with the NYPD, she was told she couldn’t, as the incident wasn’t a criminal matter — because dogs are only considered property under the law.“I pushed back.

If dogs are property, then this is a property crime,” Grant said.“And they [still] said, ‘No, you cannot submit a report.’ ” Grant said.She said she was told only her dog walker — who was also injured in the incident — could file a report.“This is a wake-up call for me,” Grant said.

“I’ve always had pets, and it’s an oversight that there is no legal recourse.“Setting a car on fire is considered to be a worse felony than setting a dog on fire.”The legal loophole is already the subject of a state bill introduced in January by Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan).The bill seeks to swap the “property” classification of such animals to “sentient beings” and establish that they can be a victim of a crime.

The bill has remained in committee since its introduction.A “sentient being is one who perceives or responds to sensations of whatever kind—sight, hearing, touch, taste, ...