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By Forum Staff
A Far Rockaway woman has been indicted on animal cruelty charges for tossing a dog down the trash compactor of her seventh floor apartment building in January, Chief Assistant District Attorney John Ryan, on behalf of Queens DA Richard Brown, announced on Thursday.
Dominiqua Parrish, 29, was arraigned last Wednesday on a three-count indictment charging her with attempted aggravated cruelty to animals, second-degree criminal mischief and overdriving, torturing or injuring an animal. She was released on her own recognizance and ordered to return to court on June 26.
According to the charges, on Tuesday, Jan. 29, at approximately 2:50 a.m. inside of the defendant’s Beach 59th Street apartment building, Parrish was observed on video surveillance throwing a small, golden-haired dog into the hallway from her front door. She was further observed allegedly picking up the dog by the neck and entering the seventh-floor garbage room, which contains a chute leading to the trash compactor. When she left the garbage room, she no longer had the animal. Another video camera in the basement showed a building employee and a good Samaritan remove the dog from the compactor.
It is further alleged, according to the charges, that when Parrish was questioned, she admitted: “I threw the dog down the incinerator because I don’t like him.”
According to the complaint, the dog sustained cuts and bruises necessitating treatment by a veterinarian at the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Further examination by an ASPCA forensic veterinarian revealed that the dog also suffered a fractured rib, Ryan noted.
“The defendant is accused of one of the most unthinkable acts—tossing an animal into a garbage disposal chute. It is hard to imagine that someone would do something so cruel,” the chief ADA added. “This office remains committed to aggressively enforcing the laws that protect all animals from those who would harm or abuse a pet.”
