Freak Show Owner Wants Rescued 5-Legged Pup

"Freaks of nature" ringleader says he is the dog's rightful owner

By XANA O'NEILL

Updated 6:08 PM EDT, Thu, Jul 23, 2009

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The five-legged pup that was saved from life in a Coney Island freak show may still end up in the lurid exhibit if the owner gets his way.

"Freaks of Nature" owner John Strong claims he is the rightful owner of the 7-week-old Chihuahua-terrier mix named Lilly and is threatening legal action against the original owner.

"It's like a guy who sells you a car and then later tells you he's going to sell it to someone else," Strong told The Charlotte Observer. "I was the original owner -- and it doesn't matter if it's a five-legged dog, a house or a car."

Strong said he put down a $1000 deposit on the dog and planned to pay owner Calvin Ownesby $3,000 total for the pup but was outbid by a kindhearted Southerner who didn't want the young pooch named Lilly relegated to a life in a sideshow.

"She's beautiful, she's not a freak," Allyson Siegel told the New York Daily News over the weekend. "She's a normal little puppy dog and she should be just like all the others."

Siegel swooped in and offered $3,000 for the dog and an additional $1,000 for Strong's deposit. She hoped to have the pup's extra leg removed because it makes it difficult for her to walk.

But now she vowed to fight back if the sideshow owner decides to file suit.

"I want to throw up," Siegel told the Observer. "I want to say, 'Over my dead body.'"

Strong, whose show features "amazing animals, oddities and freaks," had previously come to terms with Ownesby's decision to sell the pup to the highest bidder but decided to fight back and prove that his freak show isn't exploitive.

"We're good people," he told the paper, "and we take care of our animals."