Bulls, wallabies, lobsters — Long Island animal rescuer earns national praise

Exotic animals rescued from basements, boardwalks and seafood tanks. Bulls on the loose. Wallabies on the subway. Pregnant dogs dying in the Alaskan tundra.

John Di Leonardo has been there for all of it.

The anthrozoologist and executive director of Humane Long Island is earning praise in a New York Post feature this week that highlights some of the region’s wildest animal rescues — many of which Di Leonardo and his team helped carry out.

A licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Di Leonardo helps rescue an estimated 1,200 animals each year, including turkeys, ostriches, lobsters and more. One of the most dramatic cases came in 2021, when a 1,500-pound bull escaped a Manorville slaughterhouse and roamed Suffolk County for nearly two months.

Di Leonardo, tracking the animal, nicknamed “Barney” and the “Mastic Bull,” alongside dozens of other rescuers, stepped in just as police were preparing to shoot it.

“I yelled, ‘No, don’t do that! I’ll get a sanctuary on the way!’” he recalled. The bull was safely captured and taken to live at animal sanctuary in New Jersey.

In 2023, he helped rescue a baby wallaby being exploited in New York City. After the animal was spotted in Washington Square Park and on a subway, Di Leonardo and Humane Long Island volunteers worked with NYPD’s Animal Cruelty Investigations Squad to intervene. They found the animal being exhibited on the boardwalk in Coney Island and secured it with help from the 60th Precinct.

The young wallaby was taken to the Save the Animals Rescue (STAR) Foundation on Long Island.

“Wallabies are wild animals,” Di Leonardo told Greater Long Island at the time. “They are not pets and they are not props. This young joey belongs with his mother in the wilds of Australia, not being exploited for money in a cramped bag on the Coney Island boardwalk.”

Last November, Di Leonardo and Humane Long Island saved two turkeys ahead of Thanksgiving, trading two vegan roasts to a New York City slaughter market in exchange for the birds’ lives. And earlier this year, Di Leonardo flew to Alaska to lead protests of the annual 1,100-mile Iditarod sled dog race, where he said a pregnant dog named Ventana died.

His animal rights advocacy helped shut down Sloth Encounters in Hauppage last year.

Over the years, Di Leonardo has also rescued an ostrich from a Long Island basement filled with venomous reptiles, helped relocate three bulls living in unsafe conditions in Riverhead, and saved a one-in-30-million orange lobster from a supermarket tank before releasing it into the Long Island Sound.

A former PETA campaigner, he now runs Humane Long Island full time. His advocacy helped push for bans on wild animal performances across New York and he has been recognized by the Suffolk County SPCA, local lawmakers and the Humane Society of the United States.

He holds a master’s degree in anthrozoology and has been featured in National Geographic, Newsweek and now the New York Post for what the outlets describe as both “heroic” and “deeply compassionate” work.

_{Top photos: John Di Leonardo of Humane Long Island with some of the thousands of animals he has helped rescue over the years (Courtesy of Human Long Island).}

Prior coverage

Manorville animal sanctuary hit with 112 neglect charges

Groundhog not invited to Babylon’s new Feb. 2 tradition

Ultra-rare ‘1-in-30 million’ lobster rescued from Long Island Stop & Shop