Quantcast

Neighbors protest overturn of felony conviction

unnamed
Mocha, 9-year-old Yorkie, died in March 2020 after being physically assaulted by Peter Galantino, who was convicted with an aggravated cruelty to animals felony. Galantino’s conviction was later overturned, which sparked a protest at the Nassau County Court House in Mineola on Aug. 7. (Photo courtesy Jerelyn Kirby)

“Reconsider!” That’s the message that members of PETA and Humane Long Island, as well as friends and representatives of the family of a Yorkie named Mocha — who was kicked to death — sent to Judge Howard Sturim.

Strurim overturned a jury’s felony conviction of Peter Galantino, 63, of Hempstead, who killed the dog. Galantino kicked the 4-pound, 9-year-old dog into the air and sustained damage to her liver, along with receiving internal bleeding, two skull fractures, three rib fractures, and five heart attacks. The yorkie had to be euthanized due to the severity of her injuries.

Protesters gathered at the Nassau County Court House on Aug. 7, ahead of Galantino’s sentencing on August 15, holding posters showing Mocha and urging Sturim to reinstate the felony cruelty-to-animals conviction.

Galantino kicked Mocha in March of 2020 during a neighborhood argument with the dog’s family, reportedly sparked by his failure to clean up after his own dog. A jury convicted Galatino of aggravated cruelty to animals, which is a felony. However, Sturim later overturned the conviction.

“This tiny senior dog never stood a chance against a grown man with a bad temper whose reaction to a silly squabble was to kick her so violently that she sustained deadly internal injuries and broken bones,” PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch, said in a press release. “Mocha’s killer deserves more than a slap on the wrist, and PETA is calling on Judge Sturim to rightly reinstate the jury’s verdict of felony cruelty against this bully.”

“Mocha was deeply beloved by her family, and they feel her loss profoundly,” Jerelyn Kirby, Mocha’s family’s representative, said in a release. “We’re all asking Judge Sturim to do the right thing in this case—because if what Peter Galantino did to Mocha isn’t worthy of a felony cruelty-to-animals conviction, then we don’t know what is.”