Cops: Woman arrested after suffocating dog

A 20-year-old Oyster Bay woman was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals after Nassau County police said she suffocated an 11-year-old dog by placing hair ties around its snout.

Nicole Ottaiano of Marion Lane was arrested at 8:45 p.m., police said. She faces arraignment Tuesday in First District Court in Hempstead.

Ottaiano was staying at a home on Barnes Street in Franklin Square and said the owner of two dogs in the home saw the woman place hair ties around the snout of his 11-year-old dog, Jackpot, police said. The man told Ottaiano "to remove them and not to put anything around the dog's snout," police said.

The owner then went to another part of the home for about 20 minutes, police said, and they said when he returned to the bedroom he found Ottaiano on top of a blanket on the bed and his other dog, Little, an 11-year-old Stafford Shire Terrier, under the blanket with two hair ties around its snout.

The dog wasn't breathing, police said.

Police said attempts to revive Little failed.