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HERALD Shining stars in musical theater
Celebrating a national title
NICE Bus unveils summer services
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Vol. 73 No. 21
MAY 22 - 28, 2025
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Fighting for vulnerable pets Officials push to make aggravated animal cruelty a bailable offense By CHARlES SHAW cshaw@liherald.com
Brittany Krilov/Herald
A walk to support hospitals Members of the Stern Rehab Group, of Manhasset, at Northwell Health’s Walk to Raise Health fundraiser event at Jones Beach State Park on Sunday. Story, more photos, Page 3.
Flames of history fuel winning essay Wantagh eighth-grader advances in patriotic writing contest By CHARlES SHAW cshaw@liherald.com
A winning essay on the Wilmington Tea Party could propel Wantagh Middle School eighthgrader Giada Petrillo to the nation’s capital, after she advanced from a state competition to the regionals in the Daughters of the American Revolution essay contest. For this year’s annual contest, participants were tasked with writing from the point of view of a protester during the Revolution’s Tea Party demonstrations. The contest is part of the women’s service organization’s mission of promoting historic preservation and honoring the patriots of the Revolutionary War.
Giada’s essay focused on the Revolution’s Wilmington Tea Party, a North Carolina protest inspired by the Boston Tea Party of 1773. In her essay, titled “As Red as the American Flag,” she imagined a first-person account of joining the Wilmington protesters in 1774, who burned their tea instead of dumping it into a harbor. “I was really interested in getting to describe the flames, the fire, all of that,” Giada said. In her introduction, she described the smell of the burning tea as “disgustingly sweet,” painting a vivid picture of the scene. “I described the smoke,” she said. “I described the smell of it, what it looked like. It just went very into detail of what it would have felt like.” Continued on page 7
Local officials are looking to change New York’s bail reform laws to allow judges the discretion to detain defendants accused of aggravated animal abuse. At a news conference at the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wantagh on May 12, Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly called for the repeal of cashless bail in crimes involving animals. According to Donnelly, under current state law, aggravated cruelty to animals — a felony under Section 353-a of the Agriculture and Markets Law — is not a bail-eligible offense. As a result, those charged with animal abuse are typically released with nothing more
than appearance tickets, she said. “Aggravated animal cruelty is not a violent offense because it’s not labeled as such, but it is violent,” Donnelly said. “When you hurt and torture an innocent animal who can’t speak for him or herself, that is a violent act.” Joining Donnelly at the shelter were State Sen. Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick, County Legislator John Ferretti, Town Councilwoman Laura Ryder and Town Clerk Kate Murray. Together they called on state lawmakers to repeal parts of the cashless bail law that they say prevent the justice system from holding dangerous offenders accountable. In 2019, the state implemented a bail reform law that elimiContinued on page 4
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