A Bronx woman is accused of abandoning her pit bull to starve to death after she was evicted from her apartment. Cherika Alvarez, 30, is on trial for leaving behind 18-month-old pup Alize after she was evicted from her apartment in mid-November 2009. The dog was found weeks later with two razorblades, ketchup packs, sharp pieces of wood and garbage in her stomach. Alize's body was so badly decomposed that officials "had to scrape her off the floor," Alvarez tearfully testified.
Officers from the ASPCA found the remains of the dog in the Belmont basement apartment in January 2010—according to doctors, the puppy had no body fat, was found amid a trail of bloody feces and had suffered four to six weeks of "complete starvation." Alvarez claims that she had arranged for a neighbor, whom she didn't know "from a hole in the wall," to pick up the dog, which they apparently never did. "This is what happened when I trusted someone for the first time in my life and gave him the benefit of the doubt," she said in court.
The single mother said she had left water in the bath tub for the dog, but admitted that she was negligent in not checking to make sure the dog had been picked up: "Me being irresponsible, I didn't check up on the dog. I'm really sorry." Alvarez is charged with torturing and injuring an animal, and faces up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail if found guilty on animal cruelty charges.
