ANIMAL CRUELTY

Miami-Dade man faces felony charges in death of puppy he had just one day

 

After being dragged through a parking lot until she bled, a beagle was slammed against a hard surface and soon died.

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Milewski denied it.

He told police he was following training instructions from the shock-collar manual, even though to onlookers, it might have looked “abusive.”

“Dogs don’t become extremely obedient with rainbows and sugarplums,’’ Milewski said, adding that he’d trained Macy in a “very aggressive’’ way.

He told investigators Tracy Sierra and Gus Sanchez that he took Molly back to his apartment after he noticed one of her paws bleeding.

“When I went to put the dog underneath the shower head, it didn’t like that at all and it bit me...,’’ he said. “I was very shocked. I don’t like blood. When the dog bit me, a lot of blood came out and I overreacted to the dog doing this.’’

At one point in the interview, he said he “pushed’’ the dog in the shower. At another, he said he’d told a veterinarian at Alton Road Animal Hospital: “The way I threw the dog was definitely bad.’’

Milewski said after the dog hit the shower floor, he tried to revive her.

“From there it was, I guess you can call it, unconscious, so I gave it CPR,’’ he said in his taped statement. “I tried to stand the dog up. I blew in the dog. I covered its beak [sic], the dog’s belly puffed up. I thought it was going to blow up, then it s---.’’

He called a friend who advised him to take Molly to a vet.

Dr. Heidi Foster, at Alton Road, told police she tried to stabilize Molly and keep her “alive and comfortable,’’ and that although she was unconscious, Molly’s heart was beating normally.

But the X-ray machine was broken, and Foster directed Milewski to a clinic in Coral Gables. He called a friend from the building, Stacey Laneve, who put the dog into her own pet carrier and seat-belted the carrier into the passenger seat of Milewski’s BMW.

Foster told police that “20 minutes later I got a call [from Milewski] that the dog’s heart had stopped beating in the car...I found it odd just due to the fact that [Molly’s] heart rate was so fast and strong, and the vitals were fine.’’

Milewski returned with the dead dog, which Foster placed in a freezer.

When she heard the next day that Molly was dead, Charry called police. Animal Services investigators retrieved the body and brought in an outside expert to do the necropsy: Dr. Rosandra Manduca, a veterinary pathologist and adjunct professor at Miami Dade College.

“Death was likely due to brain injury secondary to head trauma,’’ Manduca concluded. She found injuries suggesting that the dog had been shaken and slammed against a hard surface. She also found bruising on the mouth and nostrils, indicating Molly may have been smothered.

Stacey Laneve told police she suspected that Milewski also had abused Macy.

A month before Molly’s death, Milewski brought Macy into the building’s management office, where Laneve worked as an assistant property manager, and asked if he should take the dog to the vet.

Macy “was shaking,’’ said Laneve, 36. “I went closer and noticed hemorrhaging in her eyes. I freaked out. To me that’s a bad sign.’’

After Molly’s death, Animal Services confiscated Macy, then returned her to Milewski’s boyfriend, to whom she was registered. The men reportedly split up after moving out of The Crown.

The day after Molly’s death, Laneve sent Milewski a text message: “I think there’s more to this story.’’

She said that his return text read: “Do you think I’d kill a dog I just paid $1,300 for? I would have sold it.’’

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