Nineteen dogs seized, 200 lbs of feces in home
Mastic, NY (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Jul 7, 2007
County: Suffolk
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Daniel Friedman
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
A Long Island beautician was busted for animal cruelty after authorities discovered a mess of traumatized dogs - and about 200 pounds of their feces - in his home, according to police.
A tip led the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to the Mastic Park home of Daniel Friedman on Saturday, where they found 19 feces-smeared cocker spaniels, Lhasa apsos and miniature poodles in tiny cages.
"The smell was just overwhelming," said Roy Gross, an SPCA official. "I can't believe people can live in these conditions."
Wearing breathing masks and protective suits, firefighters and SPCA workers removed the dogs.
Gross said an entire room was devoted to storing the excrement, saying, "The floor was giving way. It looked like he would just throw it in there."
Friedman, a beautician, was charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty and faces $1,900 in fines and up to 19 years behind bars, authorities said.
The dogs were taken to a Southampton animal shelter and treated for open sores and tooth decay.
Case UpdatesA 63-year-old man accused of animal cruelty after investigators say they found 19 dogs living in squalid conditions in his home pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Daniel Friedman, of Mastic, appeared in First District Court in Central Islip on Sunday for the first time to answer the 19 charges of animal cruelty. He faces up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each charge.
Roy Gross, the department chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the animals were found living "in piles of feces."
All of the dogs were suffering from gum disease and some had ulcers on their bodies and eyes, Ross said.
The dogs were discovered before Saturday after an anonymous tip led Suffolk SPCA investigators to Friedman's home.
The dogs, and a cat, were all taken to the Southampton Animal Shelter, where they were being treated for their ailments, Gross said. | Source: Newsday - July 9, 2007
Update posted on Jul 10, 2007 - 6:17AM |
When investigators searched the second story of the blue clapboard house Daniel Friedman shares with relatives, they said they discovered 19 caged dogs locked in a room.
The dogs were living in filth, authorities said, and they all had gum disease -- some had ulcers on their bodies and eyes.
Roy Gross, the department chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, called the Saturday afternoon discovery in Mastic "one of the worst cases of animal abuse" he'd seen "in many, many years."
Sunday, Friedman pleaded not guilty in First District Court in Central Islip Sunday to 19 counts of animal cruelty. He was held overnight on $1,900 bail, according to county officials, and is scheduled to appear again in court Monday. Friedman, 63, of 59 Coventry Ave., faces up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each charge.
Neighbors on the residential street said they were stunned to learn of the allegations.
"I'm surprised," said Ricardo Roeda, 26, a driver for a construction equipment company, who also lives on Coventry Avenue. "Not even one dog ever got out of there."
Roeda's landlord, Carolina Niazi, 43, said she saw Friedman in the afternoons as he sat on his front porch, where Sunday a big American flag flapped and a black-and-white spotted cat ate from a bowl.
"I never heard the dogs barking. The block is always quiet," said Niazi, a home health care attendant.
Shortly before 4 p.m. Saturday, an anonymous tip prompted the county SPCA to send about a dozen agents to Friedman's home, according to Gross. Once Friedman let them in, they encountered a 10-by-10-foot room full of cocker spaniels, poodles and Lhasa apsos, most of them shaking and encrusted with feces, Gross said.
"These animals were living in piles of feces," Gross said. "One of the rooms . . . there must have been 200 pounds of excrement in there."
The dogs, all between the ages of 1 and 3, and a cat were transported to the Southampton Animal Shelter, where they were treated for their various ailments, Gross said. Two of the cocker spaniels are pregnant, he said.
Last December, SPCA officials visited Friedman's house and ordered him to give an unspecified number of dogs to a breeder, Gross said. Within a week, Friedman had given the dogs to a breeder upstate, Gross said.
A woman at Friedman's house who identified herself as a relative said Sunday that while Friedman had recently bred and sold dogs, she believed he had stopped doing so several months ago. "He's always been an animal lover," she said. | Source: Newsday - July 8, 2007
Update posted on Jul 10, 2007 - 6:14AM |
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