What to Know
- A 33-year-old Seaside Heights man is facing charges for allegedly beating a 10-year-old Bichon Frise to death
- Prosecutors say the dog died of multiple blunt force trauma injuries
- The dog's owner found her dead on the bathroom floor, according to prosecutors
A New Jersey man has been arrested, accused of beating a 10-year-old dog so severely that a neighbor could hear her yelping amid loud banging sounds before the dog was found dead by her owner, police said.
The 10-year-old Bichon Frise named Booshu died Aug. 19, when her owner found her on the floor of her bathroom.
The owner told police that the suspect, 33-year-old Nicholas Piccolino, was alone with the dog in her kitchen, and an upstairs neighbor heard several loud banging sounds and a dog yelping in the kitchen below, according to the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.
Piccolino told the dog's owner shortly afterward that something was wrong with her dog, according to the prosecutor's office.
Piccolino allegedly claimed that Booshu had soiled herself in her crate and that while he was cleaning her up, he dropped her.
Booshu was taken to Red Bank Animal Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. A necropsy revealed she suffered multiple blunt force injuries to her head and body.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
It's not clear where the owner was during the alleged beating of the dog, or what her relationship to the suspect is. The prosecutor's office would only say the dog's owner and the suspect "were known to each other."
After receiving the necropsy report Tuesday, police arrested Piccolino on charges of animal torment resulting in its death.
Piccolino was remanded to Ocean County Jail and bail was set at $35,000. Attorney information for him wasn't immediately available.
