Queens Man Held for Dog Neglect
www.newsday.com
January 14, 2007, NEW YORK CITY -
In New York City's first animal cruelty arrest of the year, a Queens man was charged Saturday with neglecting his three-year-old Chow Chow so badly that the dog was being strangled by a collar that had grown into her neck, officials said.
Oswald Joudan, 51, of 131-07 135th Ave., was arrested yesterday morning by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and charged with one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty . If convicted, he faces up to one year in prison and a maximum fine of $2,000.
Special agents of the animal advocacy group acted on a neighbor's tip Dec. 29 to find the tan Chow Chow chained and emaciated in Joudan's backyard, said ASPCA spokesman Joseph Pentangelo.
A nylon collar fit around the dog's neck when she was smaller had become completely "embedded" in her throat as she grew, he said, slowly cutting off the flow of blood to her head and creating a wound circling her neck.
"This is as bad a case as I've seen," Pentangelo said. "The dog literally grew into the collar and then the dog's flesh and tissue grew around the collar."
Pentangelo said he had previously seen cases in which the fronts of collars had become embedded. In this case, he said, only the metal ring attached to the chain was still visible.
The dog, who was more than 30 pounds. underweight, was taken to the ASPCA's Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital in Manhattan. Veterinarians removed the 14-inch-collar from her 17-inch neck and used more than 100 stitches to close the wound.
She will require months of care but veterinarians are optimistic she will fully recover, Pentangelo said. Her suitability for adoption will be judged after she recovers.
"So far she has a great disposition," he said, adding that Joudan called the dog "Lumpy" but that the ASPCA would rename her.
