Dog severely neglected, skinned rottweiler in cage - Dix Hills, NY

Friday, May 20, 2005

County: Suffolk

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged: Anthony Barone

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

A Dix Hills man described by authorities as a wife beater and leopard keeper will be charged with felony animal cruelty, after a menagerie of carcasses and sickly dogs was reportedly found in his home.

The charge is expected to be filed within several days, said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Barone, 34, has already been charged with first-degree unlawful imprisonment, second-degree assault and first-degree reckless endangerment for allegedly beating his wife, Anastasia Barone, on May 20 and for allowing the two leopard cubs to come in contact with their children.

Officials stated that the 32-year-old wife told them that Barone had repeatedly punched and kicked her, breaking her nose. After allegedly assaulting her, he chained her to a downstairs wall for several hours.

During a search of the Caledonia Road home, Suffolk County SPCA officials found a skinned Rottweiler decaying in the garage. Gross said Barone's wife told officials he was planning to boil the dog's bones to add to his collection, which included various animal skins.

In a freezer, there was a dead lynx that appeared to have strangled itself on a chain, his wife told authorities, after it mauled one of the couple's four children around Christmas, Gross said. "The freezer wasn't even plugged in," he added.

Found alive -- but barely -- was a Doberman pinscher, crammed into a small crate. "It was severely emaciated," Gross said. "And the dead dog was nearby." The Doberman was being evaluated by a veterinarian on June 2, along with two mastiffs found in the home.

"This is one of the most bizarre cases that I've ever seen," Gross said. The case, he said, has garnered worldwide attention.

Gross said he expects Barone, the owner of a Lynbrook tattoo parlor, to face numerous federal and state animal charges. Authorities could also charge whoever sold animals to Barone.

He is being held at the Riverhead jail on $500,000 bail.

Meanwhile, the Suffolk County SPCA was trying to raise money to cover costs they've already incurred for feeding fresh meat to the leopards, transporting them and neutering them. "We need support. They're very expensive to maintain." Gross said of the animals, which are being looked after in an undisclosed Suffolk location that is licensed to house exotic creatures.

"We got them out of that hell hole, but we'd like to see them live in as close to their natural environment," he said.

Gross asked anyone interested in donating to e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]. Any leftover money will be used toward the organization's programs, including their rabies clinic, Gross said.

Among the more grisly items in Anthony Barone's collection were a human fetus, a mummy head, a stuffed house cat, and the skull and skin of an English mastiff dog that Anastasia said he starved to death.

On May 29, Suffolk County cops arrested Anthony Barone after a domestic dispute reported by Anastasia's aunt.

Eight days earlier, cops said, the tattoo artist beat his wife when she threatened to report him for illegally owning two 50-pound leopard cubs he named Nymeke and Ochaina.

In front of her aunt and their four children ages 2 through 8, Anthony kicked Anastasia in the stomach, legs and arms with his steel-tipped Harley-Davidson boots, cops and Anastasia said. Finally, he kicked her in the face, breaking her nose.

Her teeth poked through her upper lip. Her right nostril split and flapped open. Her eyes, cheeks and lips swelled.

As he beat her, "the kids were quiet," she said, but "he wasn't hearing the kids."

"I apologized. I said I was wrong. I told him I still loved him. Anything to get him to stop," she said.

But he told her to get downstairs and take her clothes off. There in the basement, he chained her by the neck to the metal stairway a few feet from the leopards, she said.

When he finally unchained his wife, Anthony Barone drove her to his Lynbrook tattoo parlor to ink "Tony's" across her back, as he had done on her neck years earlier, she said.

Anthony Barone now faces 11 felony counts of assault, child endangerment, unlawful imprisonment and criminal weapons possession, as well as federal charges for illegally owning exotic animals.

Anthony Barone's attorney, James Saladino, said his client "denies raising a hand against his wife."

Saladino said that Anthony and Anastasia Barone were complicit in raising their family in conditions that "raised the hair on the back of the necks of people like you and me."

Case Updates

On December 20, 2005, the sicko tattoo artist who chained his naked wife to a spiral staircase, broke her nose and terrorized her with leopards was hit with a four-year prison term. Anthony Barone, 35, pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court to assault, imprisonment and weapons charges and four counts of endangering the welfare of a child.

Source: New York Daily - December 21, 2005 Update posted on Dec 23, 2005 - 5:47PM

A man charged with endangering his four young children by allowing two 50-pound (23-kg) leopard cubs to roam freely around his suburban New York home pleaded not guilty on Friday, authorities said. Anthony Barone, who is also charged with the beating and unlawful imprisonment of his wife, kept the two male cubs in the basement of his feces-infested Suffolk County home, an animal rescue team chief said. Police said they found the leopards in Barone's home after responding to a complaint by his wife, Anastasia, on May 29. that he punched and kicked her in the face and chained her to a downstairs wall nine days earlier. The leopards were found in a basement room behind an unlocked, sliding wood door, animal rescue officials said. Barone's wife told police he sometimes let the leopards roam freely around the house, said Robert Clifford, a spokesman for the Suffolk County district attorney's office. Barone, a 34-year-old tattoo parlor owner, was tracked down by police dogs in a nearby wooded area after his wife called police, Clifford said. Barone's four children, aged 2 to 8, were placed in foster care.

Source: Reuters - June 10, 2005 Update posted on Jun 11, 2005 - 6:58PM

References

• - May 30, 2005
• - June 1, 2005
• - May 31, 2005
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