Results tagged “spca”

The cast of an animal rescue show co-opted an SPCA press conference yesterday and accused the agency of mishandling the case of a Long Island woman suspected of torturing and killing 20 dogs and burying them in her backyard. Members of the group Rescue Ink took over the media event and alleged that the Suffolk County SPCA had ignored calls for help from the children of suspect Sharon McDonough — who allegedly forced her kids to take part in her "concentration camp" for dogs.

A complaint to child services led police to a home in Mastic Beach where seven children were being raised in conditions of utter squalor and prompted the arrests five adults who lived there. Newsday reports that the house had no heat along with "no running water, feces on the floor and bottles of urine around the house, with rotted food in the refrigerator." On top of that, "appliances and lights that were being run off a generator, a television was being charged with a car battery and cooking was being done indoors with propane." The seven children ranged from ages two to thirteen and are now in foster care with an order of protection from their former caretakers. One of the five adults was also charged with animal cruelty after the SPCA discovered two dogs and 14 cats. One neighbor told the paper that she refused to open windows in the side of her house that faced their home. A Suffolk County official said redundantly, "It was obviously a health hazard."

At least one dog flown into Newark Airport from Iraq as part of a stray dog rescue mission was found to have rabies and may have affected other animals, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced yesterday. 24 Dogs and 2 cats were on the flight, organized by Operation Baghdad Pups, a SPCA group that has brought hundreds of stray dogs over from Iraq to new homes in America.