A man who lives in a school bus and was arrested on animal cruelty charges after driving through Queens with two dogs leashed to a car is a self-proclaimed animal lover who hopes to regain custody of his animals taken following his arrest.
Dan Bujor, 68, who shares his bus with four cats, to dogs and two doves — one of which was recently eaten by a hawk — was behind the wheel of his friend’s Volkswagen Passat, his two dogs leashed to the trunk, when he was confronted by a group of enraged animal lovers on 43rd Ave. near 11th St. in Long Island City around 6 p.m. on Sunday.
A New Hampshire native and former construction worker, Bujor said he gave up his job to care for his animals, which include a 4-year-old German Shepherd named Lutzy and Mo, a 6-year-old pit bull mix.
“They were abandoned and I took them in,” said Bujor. “Everybody that knows me and my animals love us. They love us and they help us. The catering companies give us trays of food. That’s why my pit bull, Mo, is obese.”
Bujor said he’d have been living in a Chevy 3500 school bus with his menagerie for the last four years, in large part because his many pets put him at odds with his previous landlords.
“I got used to staying away from houses,” said Bujor. “I aways had problems with the animals.”
The day of his arrest, he had borrowed a car from a friend to purchase gas, which he needs to heat his mobile home during the winter.
“My friend told me not to put the dogs in the car, because both dogs were throwing up and Mo, she was shitting,” said Bujor. “She has no control.
“I tied them on the left side (of the car) so I could see them. In the worst case, if one fell, I would see them.”
Bujor defended leashing his dogs to the Volkswagen, saying he never drove the car above 5 mph and pointed to video posted online as evidence that dogs had no trouble keeping up during the short trip, which spanned about three blocks along 43rd Ave.
“They’re too much,” Bujor said of the concerned citizens who confronted him on Sunday. “First of all, talk to me nicely. I went away because they started yelling. I didn’t want to get into a fight.”
The video has drawn condemnation of Bujor online.
“Look at what these motherf–ckers are doing to these dogs, man,” a man can be heard saying in the video. “They’re dragging him from the back of the f–cking car bro.”
A witness who called 911 on Bujor likewise denounced the act.
“There is no reasonable guy who would hook their dogs to the car like that,” Piamsook Homrod, 43, said. “Even though he says that the dogs are used to it, I don’t believe that the dogs are happy with what he’s doing.”
Police busted Bujor Sunday on animal cruelty charges, in addition to driving without a license. He was released following arraignment on Monday only to discover his school bus home had been towed by the city.
“They repossessed my bus. They left me in the street,” said Bujor. “I just got it back. It cost me $900. I have less than $200. Now I’m in real trouble.”
In addition to Bujor’s dogs, which were taken to the E. 92nd St. ASPCA animal hospital and adoption center following his arrest, three of his cats, Pio, Utzu and Paris, went missing when his bus was towed.
A fourth cat, an orange tabby named Henry, found its own way back to him shortly following his release.
“I want my animals back,” Bujor said. “People come to me to see my animals. People from the neighborhood that know me and love me. I love animals. I take care of them.”
Vets diagnosed Lutzy with a ruptured left eardrum and Mo received treatment for abrasions on her paw pads and wrists, as well as inflammation of the skin between her toes and diarrhea, according to the ASPCA.
“They play so rough they hurt each other,” Bujor said of the ASPCA’s diagnosis. “I’m amazed they don’t kill one another.”
