Dog sexually assaulted, beaten, starved
Hollywood, FL (US)Incident Date: Monday, Nov 15, 2010
County: Broward
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Ross Howard Fridman
A Hollywood man faces animal cruelty charges after he admitted to a series of sickening abuses against his dog which died under his care, police said.
Ross Howard Fridman, 44, put pet pit bull Honeybear through a series of abuses nearly too disturbing to describe in the six weeks he owned the dog, which was between seven and eight years old, according to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday.
In that time, the dog had lost 20 pounds and had become increasingly lethargic, yet Fridman never took her to a vet for treatment, according to the affidavit. Instead, police said, Fridman was self medicating the dog, administering cetirizine hydrochloride tablets, or the allergy pill Zyrtec, to Honeybear.
On Sunday, a neighbor in Fridman's apartment building on the 3600 block of North 56th Ave. saw Fridman using his fingers to penetrate the dog's anus, the affidavit says.
The next day, Monday, Fridman called Broward Animal Control to report that Honeybear had died. When he was told there'd be a $20 fee to remove the body, Fridman said he'd just throw the dog in the garbage.
When an Animal Control officer and a Hollywood cop paid Fridman a visit, they found Honeybear's body lying on its side in Fridman's living room. According to the arrest affidavit, Fridman began to perform surgery on Honeybear's body in front of the officers.
"While these officers were on scene, the defendant attempted to perform a tracheotomy on the dog," the affidavit reads. "The defendant advised that if the dog was dead it would not matter, because it would not hurt the dog."
The officers found bruises on Honeybear's body, and found a black flashlight on the living room floor. Fridman admitted to hitting Honeybear with the flashlight when she was "running around the house."
Perhaps the sickest revelation came when officers noticed scratches on Fridman's lower legs. That's when Fridman "admitted that he was 'mounting' the victim dog and biting her ear," the affidavit reads. "The defendant admitted later in a sworn taped confession that he only mounted the dog once while it was standing up, the rest of the times the dog was laying on its back."
Fridman was being held in a Broward County jail Tuesday. Honeybear was taken to a nearby animal hospital where a necropsy will be performed on her body. References |
