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Deer Park woman charged after abandoning her dog in street, prosecutors say

March 31, 2015 by ELLEN YAN / ellen.yan@newsday.com

A Deer Park woman with a dog she no longer wanted dumped him on the streets of Nassau after a shelter told her it didn't have any space, the Nassau district attorney's office said Tuesday.

Teddy, a 9-year-old Labrador mix, was found Feb. 10 on Terrahans Lane in Syosset, and a microchip led authorities to his owner, Amavilla Araujo, 44, of Deer Park.

She was arraigned Tuesday on a misdemeanor animal crime charge for abandoning him and was released on her own recognizance. The name of her attorney was not immediately available, and Araujo could not be reached Tuesday afternoon.

Araujo told investigators that the Babylon Town animal shelter offered to put her on a waiting list of pets they would take in and she tried unsuccessfully at another shelter, according to the complaint.

She drove to Syosset and dropped him off there because she "knew it was a nice area and she hoped someone would find him," the investigator wrote in the complaint.

A motorist found him and took him to Jericho Animal Hospital, authorities said. A poster with a flyer of Teddy was passed around, authorities said.

"Leaving an unleashed dog to roam free near a roadway is not only a crime, it is dangerous to motorists, to the public and to the animal involved," acting District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a statement.

Teddy had a foot injury, and a toe had to be amputated, prosecutors said.

Other details, including whether the dog is up for adoption, were not immediately available.