11 Dogs Found Urine-Soaked, Infested With Fleas In Long Island Home With Rats: SPCA

CENTEREACH, NY — A Centereach man was slapped with animal cruelty charges after investigators found 11 dogs, some underweight, dirty, and flea-ridden, living in squalid conditions at his home, the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said.

Detectives charged the 42-year-old with multiple misdemeanor animal cruelty charges, alleging that he failed to provide a habitable living environment to the animals in his home, according to SPCA Chief Roy Gross.

At around 4:30 p.m., the SPCA, police, and Brookhaven town animal control and code enforcement executed a search warrant at the home after receiving a complaint about the living conditions causing the animals distress, Gross said.

Eleven dogs were recovered from the home, some underweight, filthy, flea-ridden, ungroomed, and covered in urine, according to Gross.

The air was so noxious with ammonia from urine, feces, mold, and mildew that it stung investigators' eyes and throats, making it difficult to breathe, Gross said, adding that fly excrement and cobwebs covered the interior of the home’s walls and ceilings, while rats scurried inside the broken out portions of the walls and floors.

Ten of the dogs were confined to a small bedroom on urine and feces-soaked sheets with live electrical wires exposed, hypodermic needles, and other drug paraphernalia strewn about, according to Gross.

At least two of the dogs, tested presumptive positive for cocaine exposure, Gross said, adding that the home was deemed "unfit for human occupancy by code enforcement."

The dogs will be available for adoption to the public upon medical recovery, according to Gross.

The man was arrested during the search warrant execution on Saturday, and held in police custody on two active arrest warrants for unrelated cases, Gross said.

He is scheduled to appear in First District Court In Central Islip on Monday.