Long Island man shot his two dogs in the head with a rifle, horrific animal cruelty found on property
A Long Island man shot two of his German Shepherd dogs in the head with a rifle — leading investigators to a nightmarish illegal slaughterhouse operation in his backyard, according to officials.
Carlos Lauro, 76, of Riverhead, was arrested on Thursday after one of his dogs, a one-year-old named Blitzkrieg, was found paralyzed with a gunshot wound to the head laying in a pen on Lauro’s property beside a dead goat, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
Cops were tipped off after the dog was taken to the VCA Westbury Veterinarian Hospital in Westbury. When police arrived at Lauro’s home, they learned he savagely killed a 6-month-old puppy a month earlier.
Lauro allegedly shot the pup, named Cranky, in the back after he refused to come inside his home. When another resident took the dog back inside the house to treat his wounds, Lauro dragged the dog back outside and shot him in the head, police said.
Police executed a search warrant on the property and found eight other dogs, as well as a “multitude” of pigs, cows and chickens “living in deplorable conditions without access to clean food and water.”
Numerous deceased farm animals — including a baby goat and pig — were also discovered on the property. The nature of their deaths is under investigation.
John Di Leonardo, Executive Director of Humane Long Island, who is assisting in finding foster homes for some of the rescued animals, described the macabre scene.
“It was sick and injured animals living amongst the corpses of their friends,” Leonardo, an anthrozoologist, told The Post Friday night. “Everywhere you looked there were bones or fresh bodies. There’s hides just strung across the ground, birds torn apart, legs sticking out of the ground — it looks like a warzone over there.”
Di Leonardo said his organization had reported the slaughterhouse observation to New York State’s Agriculture and Markets last year. He thinks the dogs’ lives could have been spared if the agency took action sooner.
“This unlicensed slaughterhouse operation was allowed to go on until someone brought to light that these two German Shepherds were killed,” he said.
Humane Long Island has taken in some 50 to 60 chickens, two young goats, and a baby sheep who were all injured or mistreated, Di Leonardo said.
Fund For Animal Cruelty Treatment of Suffolk (FACTS) is providing costs of care to the dogs.
Town of Riverhead Attorney Erik C. Howard said that the town has received numerous complaints regarding Lauro and his property over the years that have led to prosecutions for illegal animal sales, attempts to operate an illegal slaughterhouse, loose farm animals and other property issues.
“This is a particularly horrific example of cruelty,” said District Attorney Raymond Tierney in a statement. “While we unfortunately could not rescue all of the animal victims that our investigators found on this defendant’s property, we will seek justice for them.”
He is charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony, and three counts of neglect of an impounded animal, a misdemeanor.
Riverhead Town Justice Court Judge Sean Walter ordered that he be held without bail at his arraignment. He is scheduled to appear in court next on Jan. 17.
