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- Cruelty that caused an injury, for which each could receive a $2,500 fine and up to six months in jail if convicted;
nCruelty in general for not providing veterinary care, with a sentence of up to a $1,000 fine and 30 days in jail if convicted,
nAnd abandoning a domestic animal, for which conviction brings a $250 fine.
This is according to Eric Maldonado, manager at the Trenton Animal Shelter in the city’s Bureau of Animal Control, who worked the case with investigators Bryain Jenkins and Dennis Sullivan.
Peanut was so named after a group of workers spotted the starving, horribly injured animal wandering around behind Capital Health Systems at Mercer hospital, and lured him into nurse Dawn Tucker’s car with peanut butter cookies.
They believed chemicals had been poured over Peanut’s neck and back, that burned through his fur and layers of skin down to the tissue, exposing the already emaciated puppy’s ribcage and causing his scorched skin to peel away.
"We were appalled," Tucker said last year. "His skin was falling off. We were all horrified. It looked like someone tried to skin him alive. We couldn’t imagine how it happened."
The puppy was rushed to the Animal Emergency and Critical Care Service in Langhorne, Pa., the only 24-hour facility of its kind in the area.
Animal-lovers read Peanut’s story, and donated over $12,000 toward saving him. He now lives the life of a pampered Snoopyafter being adopted by a Coatesville, Pa., couple (see accompanying story).
Maldonado was asked how authorities located the suspects.
"There had been a previous call that day of a stray dog in the 400 block of Rutherford Avenue," he said. "When we went to the neighborhood and asked around, we found the dog had belonged to the people at [a house in the 400 block of] Rutherford, and that they had moved out that very day.
"So we contacted the landlord, and got their names off a copy of the lease," Maldonado said. "There was a lot of work to get them traced down, but we located them at the home they moved to on Breunig Avenue.
"They gave us stories that they gave the dog away, that they never saw the dog again, but other witnesses said they hadn’t, and a month ago they admitted it was their dog, and they had moved out the same day," he said.
"Another witness informed us that boiling water had been poured on the dog," he said. "No reason was given."
A Trentonian attempt to get comment from the couple at their "new" address on Breunig revealed an obviously empty, locked house, and an official sign notifying tenants they had been evicted by Superior Court order -- ripped down and tossed in the dirt. The next-door neighbor said she knew nothing of them.
Meanwhile, those who had nursed Peanut back to health were happy that suspects had been charged.
"I think that’s fabulous, because normally these people don’t always get caught," said Donna Steckley, practice manager for the animal hospital in Langhorne.
"Hopefully, they will be able to prosecute," she said. "When it comes down to animal cruelty, it was personally the worst I’ve ever seen. We’ve had a cat set on fire,but this was pretty incomprehensible."
She keeps track of Peanut and his new owners, Amy and Sebastian Musumeci of Coatesville, Pa.
"(Peanut) is doing fabulous," Steckley said. "He’s starting to grow back some peach fuzz (on the burned areas)."
She said over $8,000 of the donations went to the Langhorne hospital for weeks of care, to Trenton Animal Control, and to Peanut’s regular veterinarian for continuing care.
"We’ve used the rest for other animals -- another Trenton dog that was hit by a car, we fixed it up and adopted it out," Steckley said. "A cat was hit by a car."
The loving nurse who first came toPeanut’s aid, Dawn Tucker, said, "I’m very thankful for the way things turned out. The outpouring of love and concern went to help a few other animals as well, and the money is still coming in. One nice lady came in, she had lost her dog, and she donated a lot."
Matt Stanton, spokesman for the N.J. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, was delighted that criminal charges had been filed.
"Obviously, they are a step in the right direction," he said. "Some people think we just issue tickets. One thing people don’t understand is that just because it’s animal cruelty doesn’t mean we put it on the side. We always get our man.
"I assume," he added, "that the judge isn’t going to be too nice. I assume the judge is looking at the maximum."
