.png "After coming from an abusive home, a foster dog in Hialeah was allegedly beaten multiple times by its foster owner; Miami‑Dade Animal Services rescued her dogs.")
After coming from an abusive home, a foster dog in Hialeah was allegedly beaten multiple times by its foster owner; Miami‑Dade Animal Services rescued her dogs.
CBS Miami
A small Hialeah dog once abused by its previous owners was entered into a foster program in hopes the pup could find a loving home and escape its past trauma.
Unfortunately, it landed in the hands of yet another abuser — a woman who spent an entire night beating it about 18 times around her apartment complex, police say.
Miriam De La Rosa, 42, is facing three counts of animal cruelty with intent to kill or injure, court records show. As of Saturday, she still sits in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $7,500 bond.
The front desk employee at Metro Parc Apartments, 952 E 26th Street in Hialeah, was on the hunt to find out why there was poop on the wall near the elevator, De La Rosa’s arrest report read. What she discovered on surveillance video was far more alarming.
She told Hialeah police officers that cameras caught De La Rosa on three separate occasions — in the main entrance, lobby, and elevator area — vigorously beating her dog on the night of Sept. 16.
Around 6:07 p.m., De La Rosa was outside the apartment building with three dogs, two in a stroller and a third walking on a leash, the report read. She tried to enter the lobby, but the dog slipped out of its collar and started to run.
De La Rosa jumped onto the ground and grabbed the dog. She immediately lifted the dog in the air upside down by its back legs and held it there.
Just five minutes later, she was again seen walking into the lobby holding the same dog, but this time by the neck. As she walked toward the elevator, she hit the small dog in the face about eight times in “an aggressive manner.”
“The surveillance footage did not depict any apparent provocation by the victim dog,” officers wrote.
Around 11:03 p.m. that night, De La Rosa walked into the elevator with all three dogs. The canine that was beat before started to poop and pee, which quickly prompted De La Rosa to hold it in the air by its front leg as she hit the dog’s face about ten times.
The dog continued to poop and pee as it was beaten, police wrote.
Detectives later learned De La Rosa was fostering the dog — she repeatedly struck for the last two months — form a different abusive home.
Hialeah officers arrested De La Rosa at her apartment on Thursday. Miami-Dade Animal Services took custody of all three dogs and had them medically evaluated.
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Miami Herald
Miami Herald Cops and Breaking News Reporter Devoun Cetoute covers a plethora of Florida topics, from breaking news to crime patterns. He was on the breaking news team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. He’s a graduate of the University of Florida, born and raised in Miami-Dade. Theme parks, movies and cars are on his mind in and out of the office.