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Battle Over Bubba: Long Island Woman Fights To Get Her Pug Back

HOLBROOK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Suffolk County woman is fighting to get her dog back.

Patty Armine of Holbrook said her 16-year-old pug, Bubba, got out of her backyard and was turned over by a passerby to a  rescue group, Curly Tail Pug Rescue, which is accusing her of neglecting the dog.

Long Island Woman Fights To Get Her Pug Back

"They accuse me of not feeding my dog, they accuse of starving my dog. These people are cuckoo," Armine told 1010 WINS' Mona Rivera. "I love my pug and I want him back."

Roy Gross, head of the Suffolk County SPCA, said a volunteer with the rescue group was arrested Monday in connection with the Bubba case. The volunteer was charged with petit larceny and possession of stolen property, according to Gross.

Gross said investigators are now actively looking for Bubba to return him to Armine.

According to its website, the rescue group said the volunteer was "wrongfully arrested" and that Bubba was "suffering from severe dehydration and extreme malnourishment."

The group labeled Bubba abandoned and neglected, but Armine said the dog is just old, Rivera reported.

"He is deaf and blind and he could barely walk," Armine said. "These people are trying to prove negligence, there is no negligence here."

1010 WINS is awaiting a response from the rescue group.

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