The French children’s bookstore that was the site of multiple attacks by the owner’s German Shepherds against at least four smaller, passing dogs – including a poodle whose injuries proved fatal – is permanently relocating to the West Village.
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But Lynda Hudson, the owner of La Librairie des Enfants (which until now was located at 163 East 92nd Street), tells the New York Post that last summer’s maulings have nothing to do with her decision to relocate. She claims her lease had simply expired and “her bottom line was substantially damaged by the COVID-19 pandemic,” not explaining why a store in the much more expensive West Village would help her recover from that.
Hudson officially announced the Upper East Side location’s closure in a Feb. 12 Facebook post.
Last August, multiple witnesses saw one of Hudson’s four German Shepherds attacking a toy poodle on the sidewalk outside the store. The dog, named Baby, weighed only 7 pounds and her owner, Akiba Tripp, recalled the larger canine taking her into his mouth and breaking her spine.
Hudson often had her four large dogs unleashed inside the store, including a white Shepherd named Syko who was the most frequently violent and was reportedly the dog responsible for the deadly attack. Baby was not the first dog to be attacked as neighbors shared stories of their own encounters.
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Three other dogs were injured in two separate attacks in May 2023, and the owners of all the injured dogs say Hudson was unapologetic and never followed up on promises to reimburse them for vet bills.
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After the August incident, Hudson complained that neighbors were trying to shut her down despite the fact that she had taken her dogs to her home in Westchester County. She also claimed that Baby’s euthanasia was unnecessary and that reports of the attack were exaggerated. At the time of East Side Feed’s original report, neighbors had taken to Yelp to post reviews blasting the store as dangerous and sharing other frightening incidents involving the owner’s pets. Since then, however, these reviews have been removed from the site.
Hudson tells the Post that the new West Village location is not yet open and that renovations are ongoing. The UES store is indeed closed, and a sign plastered in the window says it will reopen on Charles Street “by the end of April,” without providing an actual address. The sign also directs customers to La Librairie Kitchen & Café next door, which also appears to be closed.
It looks like the space (or at least part of it) is going to be replaced by a bar. We’ll definitely be keeping tabs on that.
The ostensibly intimate wine bar met with various objections at the Community Board. Seems that location is a challenging one.