Cops say it may be a tall tail.
The alleged “stabbing” of a pooch in Central Park this week may have actually been an accident that occurred after the dog’s leash got tangled with another dog — whose owner then tried to cut them loose, police officials said Thursday.
“There’s a lot more to that story,” Chief James Essig told reporters when asked about the Saturday night encounter between two dog owners that forced one to put down his 14-year-old pit bull-German shepherd mix, named Eli.
According to the chief, the alleged slasher had two of his dogs on leashes when his third dog snapped at Eli at the park’s 106th Street and East Drive entrance around 8:30 p.m.
The pooches then appear to have begun fighting after the owners exchanged words, cops said.
At one point, the dogs’ leashes became tangled and one of the owners pulled a switchblade to try to cut the restraints and break up the fight, according to Essig.
Eli’s owner, who asked only to be identified as Brian Robert, then pulled pepper spray and unloaded it on the pooches.
The elderly pup was injured at some point by the knife, but the cutting may have happened as the other owner was trying to slice through the leashes to free the dogs, cops said, citing their interview with Brian.
After the vicious incident, the other owner walked off, and has not been located or identified.
Essig said the stabbing wasn’t fatal, but Brian eventually decided to euthanize his dog after the vet found a tumor that would have killed the elderly pooch in just a few months.
Brian, though, had a much more dramatic recounting of the event, telling reporters on multiple occasions that the other dog owner sicced his three unleashed dogs on him and his pooches — while wildly swinging a knife.
Essig said that account had varied when interviewed by cops.
“The victim gave conflicting statements in this,” the chief said, adding, Brian “doesn’t know” if Eli was stabbed during the cutting of the leash or afterward.
When told of Essig’s comments, the 52-year-old told The Post it was “bullcrap” and accused the cops of not doing their jobs.
“I never changed the story,” he insisted. “The story is the NYPD is not doing anything.”
“He already had the knife,” Brian said, denying it was pulled during the dog fight.
“The guy tried to stab me. I was bobbing and weaving. I was fighting him and his three dogs.
“I’m a fighter, but I can’t take this guy and three dogs.”
Brian, who said he is disabled and Eli was his emotional support animal, later admitted to having poor eyesight and wasn’t sure if the other man had swung the knife at him.
The NYPD’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad is still investigating the incident.
Still, the dog owner did have hope that the Animal Cruelty detective was “trying to help.”
