Owner of Drowned Poodle: What if it Had Been a Child?

The owner of the after chasing a bird onto Prospect Park’s icy lake has one question for city officials: what it if had been a child?

Rescue workers flocked to the scene, but stood on the banks helplessly as Pasha, Viviane Arzoumanian’s 5-year-old standard poodle, drowned on Jan. 2.

In an interview in her Kensington home last week, Arzoumanian freely admitted that she let Pasha off the leash, which she knew was against park rules. 

She doesn’t blame the Parks Department for the poodle’s death, but she does have some ideas for how workers could be more effective in future rescues.

Arzoumanian, a certified dog trainer, came to the park at about 9:30 that Sunday morning with Pasha and two other dogs she was watching.

“We were walking along the lake and I let the dogs off the leash, which I know you’re not supposed to do. But I let the dogs off the leash,” she said.

She said normally Pasha comes back the minute she calls her. But that day she saw a bird “and just took off across the lake.” The dog, she said, must have slid into an open spot.

“The lake was covered with fog. I couldn’t see her at all, but I could hear her. She started to bark and howl,” Arzoumanian said, tears welling up as she sat with her remaining dog, Toby, a 5-year-old Yorkie, who was wearing a homemade sweater.

Arzoumanian called 911, and after some confusion pinpointing her location in the park, a slew of rescue workers arrived. 

But they didn’t have the proper equipment to safely venture out onto the icy lake. They helplessly as the barking weakened, and then stopped, according to Arzoumanian. 

So what can be done to aid ice rescues in the future?  

This isn’t the first drowning in Prospect Park lake. In 2004, a man drowned after falling through the ice.

You may have seen the ladders stationed around the lake for ice rescues. But they were useless, Arzoumanian said.

“You couldn’t get on a ladder and scoot yourself out there and be safe. There are no ropes, there are no life preserves, no floatation devices. If there were some sort of inflatable raft, anybody could go out there safely,” she said. 

Arzoumanian suggests that instead of the ladders, the Parks Department put boxes around the lake containing self-inflating rafts and other rescue equipment. The boxes could have locks with combinations known by Parks Department and rescue personnel.

The New York Police Department, the Fire Department of New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office all declined to comment on Pasha’s drowning or  Arzoumanian’s suggestions.

A Parks Department spokeswoman said the department “welcomes all suggestions,” and would consider any ideas Arzoumanian submitted in writing.

Meanwhile, Arzoumanian and her husband, Gregory Cohen, grieve, as Pasha’s empty dog bed still sits next to their own. 

The couple adopted the poodle two years ago from a family that no longer had the time to care for her. She was called in to help find an owner, but it was love at first site, she said.

“She was just such a sweet and gentle thing. She was like a little deer,’” Arzoumanian said. 

She said Pasha “didn’t want to be more than two inches” from her side in the beginning. “If I went to the basement for five minutes, she was like ‘Oh my God, I’m so glad you’re back.’”

About a year ago Pasha, who was about 40 pounds, started sleeping in their bed. They didn't have the heart to kick her out for eight months, Arzoumanian said.

In August the couple lost their standard poodle Shadow to liver disease, and now there’s only Toby.

Arzoumanian hopes someone will spot Pasha’s body after the ice melts, so she can give the remains a proper burial. Although with the lake’s vibrant wildlife, she doesn’t have much hope.

Still, she hopes at least someone will find Pasha’s collar, made with three strands of turquoise and silver beads she strung herself.  

“When Shadow died I had his ashes and his harness and a piece of his hair,” she said, finally sobbing after an hour of holding it together for the interview.

With Pasha, she said, “I don’t have anything. If I got her collar back, or her tags back or something, that would mean a lot.”

Asked if she would let her dogs off the leash in the future, Arzoumanian said she “would take more precautions with other people’s dogs,” but wasn’t sure what she would do with her own.

“Certainly an iced-over lake presents a different picture to me than it did before,” she said.

Asked if she blamed the city for not preparing rescue workers better for the situation, Arzoumaniansaid no. But she does hope Pasha’s death will inspire Park officials to make some changes.

“It’s not like I’m mad at anybody. It’s just sort of shocking, on reflection, of how ill-prepared (for an ice rescue) the park is,” she said.

She added, “I just would have liked more options available to try to save her."