Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Staten Island Woman, Irene Helale, Pleads Guilty After Dog’s Eyes Are Doused With Ammonia

NEW YORK -- A Staten Island woman has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges, following charges that she threw ammonia in a dog’s eyes.

Irene Helale pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges, CBS2 reported. A judge on Friday ordered her to pay the dog’s medical bill of $1,000.


Helale is also not allowed to own a dog herself for a year.

Frank Latino said his English bulldog, Rocky, was swimming in his backyard pool during a Father’s Day barbecue last year, when Helale, his next-door neighbor, started banging pots and pans to lure Rocky through their adjoining fence.


“And she douses him through the fence,” Latino said.

He said a splash of ammonia came right through the slats on the fence and Rocky was injured.

“When he got hit in the face with the ammonia, he turned around, looked at us with his eyes closed, and he was like this, trying to get the ammonia out of his mouth,” Latino said.


 
The family called police and rushed Rocky to an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals hospital. He had ulcers in both his eyes, but may suffer permanent loss of sight.

Helale was arrested that day. She has admitted putting ammonia on her patio to keep Rocky from jumping up on the fence, but claimed Rocky and his family were nowhere to be seen when she did it.

“They weren’t in the yard, and I didn’t see a dog in the yard,” Helale said. “If I’d have seen the dog, I would never have done it.”


Helale said in June that her family and Latino’s family have been close over the years. But she said things went downhill when Rocky kept barking, and scaring her husband who has heart issues.

CBS2’s Cindy Hsu asked Helale back in June about the dog’s eye injuries.

“Maybe it went on the fence and it dripped. I don’t know,” Helale said. “I would never do that if the dog was there, I’m not an evil person, like I said.”

(CBS Local - Feb 13, 2015)

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