A Long Island man shot his two German Shepherd dogs in the head with a rifle, leading investigators to a nightmarish illegal slaughterhouse in his backyard, officials said.
Carlos Lauro, 76, of Riverhead, said Thursday that one of his dogs, a 1-year-old named Blitzkrieg, was lying in a pen on Lauro's property next to a dead goat, with his head pounding. He was arrested after being found paralyzed from a gunshot wound. He went to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
Police were called after the dog was taken to VCA Westbury Veterinary Hospital in Westbury. When police arrived at Lauro's home, they discovered that Lauro had brutally killed a 6-month-old puppy a month earlier.
Lauro allegedly shot the puppy, named Cranky, in the back after it refused to enter the house. When another resident brought the dog back inside to treat its wounds, Lauro dragged the dog back outside and shot him in the head, police said.
When police executed a search warrant on the property, they found eight other dogs and “numerous” pigs, cows and chickens “living in poor conditions with no access to clean food or water.” Ta.
Numerous livestock carcasses, including baby goats and pigs, were also found on the property. The nature of their deaths remains under investigation.
John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, which helps find homes for rescued animals, described the horrifying scene.
“Sick and injured animals were living among the corpses of their friends,” Leonardo, an anthropozoologist, told the Post on Friday night. “Everywhere you looked there were bones and fresh bodies. The ground was covered with skin, birds were torn up, feet were sticking out of the ground, it looked like a battlefield.”
Di Leonardo said his organization reported its slaughterhouse observations to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets last year. He believes the dogs' lives could have been saved if authorities had acted sooner.
“This unlicensed slaughterhouse operation was allowed to continue until someone came to light that these two German shepherds had been killed,” he said.
Humane Long Island took in about 50 to 60 injured or abused chickens, two baby goats and a lamb, Di Leonardo said.
The Suffolk Fund for Animal Cruelty Treatment (FACTS) is funding the care of the dogs.
Riverhead Town Attorney Eric C. Howard said the town has received numerous complaints over the years regarding Lauro and his property, including illegal animal sales, attempted illegal slaughterhouse operation, and free-ranging. He said that he was prosecuted for livestock and other property issues.
“This is a particularly horrific example of brutality,” District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we were not able to rescue all of the animal victims our investigators found on the defendant's property, but we will pursue justice on their behalf.”
He is charged with a felony count of aggravated animal cruelty and three misdemeanor counts of neglect of a confined animal.
Riverhead Town Justice Court Judge Shawn Walter ordered him held without bail at his arraignment. He is next scheduled to appear in court on January 17th.
