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Cornell student charged with torturing animal;  Man allegedly beat, poured
bleach on dog

From Journal Staff Reports ITHACA - A 23-year-old Cornell student from the
Boston area, taking
care of another person's dog for a night, was charged with beating it and
pouring bleach on it,
leaving it with diminished eyesight for life, the Ithaca Police Department said.


Alexander H. Atkind, 23, of 710 Stewart Ave., Apt. 8 and of Lexington, Mass.,
was charged
with "overdriving, torturing and injuring animals" in violation of a section of
the state
Agriculture and Markets law. The offense is a misdemeanor. He was released with
a ticket to appear
in Ithaca City Court on Wednesday, March 21.

According to an Ithaca police report, the case began when the owner of the dog
contacted the
police department at 4 a.m. Saturday, March 10. The dog's owner told the
investigating officer
he'd left his dog, later identified as a black-and-white, 30-pound Labrador-pit
bull mix named
Princess, in the care of Atkind while spending Thursday night, March 8, at a
family member's
house.

On Friday, March 9, the dog's owner talked to Atkind on the phone, who said the
dog had chewed on
a speaker wire Atkind owned. Atkind told the owner he'd beaten Princess, and
poured bleach and
laundry detergent on her, but the dog was all right. Late Friday, the owner came
home and found
the dog severely beaten and called police. The officer found the apartment and
kennel area in
disarray, with dog food, bleach and detergent spilled. The dog had a laceration
1 inch by 2 inches
wide, and some of its skull was showing through, according to the officer's
report.

He called the Cornell University veterinary hospital and took the dog there for
evaluation. The
next day, he was told by the attending veterinarian that the dog suffered
chemical burns to its
face, eyes, back, groin area and paws. It would likely have diminished eyesight
the rest of its
life, and it had blood in its stool, probably from ingesting some bleach by
licking itself. The
officer called Atkind, who admitted beating the dog, and agreed to come talk
further at police
headquarters, according to the police report.

There, he was formally charged but refused to speak further without an attorney
present. He was
given a ticket for city court and released. The officer noted in his report that
Atkind
acted "cocky and arrogant" and "made numerous comments that this incident meant
nothing to him,
that he would do it again, and that he knows how the criminal justice system
works, and guaranteed
me the prosecution of this case would result in an ACD in City Court." The
reference is to
an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," in which a judge typically tells
a defendant to
stay out of trouble for a period of time and the case will be dismissed.

The case drew the attention of the Tompkins County SPCA, which sent out a press
release saying
that, according to a 1997 study done by the Massachusetts SPCA and Northeastern
University, animal
abusers are five times more likely to commit violent crimes against people and
four times more
likely to commit property crimes than individuals without a history of animal
abuse. Princess is
recovering, and has been treated at the veterinary hospital, according to
Tompkins County SPCA
Executive Director Abigail Smith. She was heading home with her owner Thursday
afternoon, Smith
said.