A Hempstead man who was convicted of fatally kicking a Yorkshire Terrier will only spend two weeks in jail, and animal activists were not happy.
Peter Galantino, 63, was found guilty at Nassau County court of aggravated animal cruelty in January. New York State Supreme Court Justice Howard Sturim overturned the felony conviction in May, and replaced them with two misdemeanor convictions. Galantino will spend two weeks in jail and will pay a fine, Sturim ruled on Thursday.
Galantino had a confrontation with his neighbors in March of 2020, Elizabeth Joyce and James Joyce, while walking his dog – a golden retriever named Louie – when Galantino apparently refused to clean up after his dog. During the confrontation, Elizabeth Joyce said that Louie jumped up on her, and she brushed the dog off. In retaliation, Galantino kicked Joyce’s dog, a 4-pound Yorkshire Terrier named Mocha, so high that it cleared utility lines. Mocha suffered broken ribs, a fractured skull, and a ruptured liver, and was euthanized at a later date.
Humane Long Island, an animal advocacy group, rallied outside of the courthouse to protest the verdict.
“This is an extreme miscarriage of justice,” John DiLeonardo, the group’s executive director, told the Press. “Not only should he not have overturned the felony that was that a jury agreed upon, but then he only sentenced him to 14 days for the murder of of this animal who was dear to this family. He didn’t even get remanded today. He has another week. He’ll come see the judge, do 14 days, and then he’ll be back on the street. So these family members, they’re scared for their safety, and I am scared for the safety of the two dogs that were left in the custody of this defendant.”
The Joyces have since moved out of the neighborhood where the incident occurred.
“He’s an angry, angry man, and if he would do that to a little dog, what would he do to someone else, to a person, to a child? I don’t understand the judge’s logic,” Jerelyn Kirby, a longtime friend of the Joyces who joined the rally, said. “They had the dog for nine years, the sweetest little dog you ever want to meet, and they loved him.”
