An Uber driver yanked a nine-months-pregnant passenger’s service dog from her and slammed the pooch onto a Manhattan street because he did not want the animal in his car, cops said on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Manhattan woman got into Muhammad Qayyum’s cab with her dog, named Brooklyn, at around 7:25 p.m. on Broadway near West 56th Street on Jan. 21, police said.
“I will not take your dog in my car,” Qayyum, 23, told the woman, according to cops.
Mojeh Adams Schaniel told the driver that the silky terrier is her service dog, but Qayyum didn’t care. He got out of the vehicle, opened the rear passenger door and snatched the dog out of the woman’s lap by its leash and threw it to the ground, police said.
The dog suffered a dislocated hip and an injury to its right back leg, according to a criminal complaint filed with the Manhattan DA’s office.
The owner took her service dog to Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners on West 57th Street, where the animal underwent surgery, police said.
Qayyum was arrested on charges of aggravated cruelty to animals and harming a service animal in the second-degree.
He was released without bail and an order of protection was placed against him, the DA said.
Qayyum denied harming the pooch and claimed that the woman punched him in the face multiple times and made “racist, religiously disparaging slurs,” said an Uber spokeswoman, who noted that all of its drivers are required to accommodate service animals.
According to the spokeswoman, Qayyum’s and the woman’s Uber accounts have been suspended pending an investigation into the matter.
“Any mistreatment of animals is abhorrent, and we do not tolerate violent behavior on the platform,” Uber said in a statement.
The woman gave birth to a baby boy Monday night, a doorman at her building told The Post on Tuesday.
“He is a nice, little dog. Sometimes I pet him. I play with him,” the doorman said. “It makes me sad to hear [what happened to Brooklyn]. It’s a small dog. I didn’t know [the Uber driver] did that to him . . . I hope he gets better.”
The woman and her husband moved into the Midtown building about a month ago, the doorman said.