RISPCA: 'People Should Be Outraged'

EXETER, RI — Just before Christmas the Rhode Island State Police raided 45 Gardner Road in Exeter, where Carlos Alves was warehousing more than 100 animals, including 24 dogs and newborn puppies. Police and Exeter Animal Control seized the dogs, which were beagles, Chihuahuas and Brittany Spaniels and handed them over to the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals where the animals received care. RI SPCA also investigated the case and charged Alves with animal cruelty and neglect on Dec. 29, according to Dr. E.J. Finocchio, the RI SPCA president.

According to the Judicial Portal, he was charged with Overwork, Mistreatment of Failure to Feed Animals, and with Unnecessary Cruelty.

The raid on the Alves property had followed numerous complaints about dogs being kept outside in extreme cold and starved. State troopers reported the dogs were found "in deplorable conditions." They also found dozens of other animals, including 10 goats, 40 rabbits and 40 ducks, chickens and roosters.

The case went to trial earlier this week. Alves was found guilty. But Dr. Finocchio does not believe justice was served. Alves is going free with a $200 fine and probation. Some of the animals, he told Channel 10, died.

"Not much of much of a penalty for such a horrific act of animal neglect and abuse,' he said. "People should be outraged by the judge's leniency in this horrific case of neglect and abuse to multiple animals. This is the reason animals cruelty is alive and well in Rhode Island. There is no deterrent to those who perpetrate these acts against those who can not speak for themselves. It was an actual Gulag for those animals who lived under Mr. Alves so-called care, and the sentence issued by the judge was very frustrating for the work put into this case by all that were involved." He said Earl Newman and Joseph Warzycha, animal cruelty investigators, spent hours on the case, and they also spent time going to court.

Amy Kempe, spokeswoman for the state Attorney General's office, was asked if the prosecutors had gone too easy on Alves.

"This case went to trial, and the defendant was found guilty," she said. "Sentencing, as in all cases, was left to the Court." But asked if the prosecutors had a say in the sentence, Kempe said "We do, but it’s still the judge’s decision. I believe we asked for one year probation (the charge is a misdemeanor), but the judge determines the sentence."

Misdemeanor or not, the sentencing was not proper, Dr. Finocchio said.

"The system is broken," he said in an e-mail message. "Even though Rhode Island is ranked fifth in the nation in regard to our animal cruelty laws (which are on the whole enforced), we sorely lack proper sentencing to those who commit these crimes, misdemeanors or not. A misdemeanor can be punishable up to a $1000.00 fine and 11 months in jail for each count. I doubt you will ever see this unfortunately." He went on to say the "courts are inundated with cases on a daily basis, and animal cruelty cases evidently are not a priority item when judges deal with crimes of violence et cetera in our society."

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