Support provided by Northwell’s Mather Hospital, which delivers the five-star difference in exceptional care and is ranked by Medicare in the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for overall clinical performance and patient experience.
The air in a rat-infested Centereach home filled with 11 “filth” and “flea ridden” dogs was so noxious from the smell off urine, feces, mold and mildew that it stung the eyes of animal police and made it difficult for them to breathe while executing a search warrant, authorities said on Monday.
Christopher DiGiovanna, 42, was arrested and charged with multiple animal cruelty charges, alleging that he failed to provide a safe and habitable living environment to the dogs, two of which tested positive for cocaine exposure after authorities removed them from the home, authorities said.
Detectives from the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), as well as Suffolk police and members of Brookhaven Town’s Animal Control and Code Enforcement unit, entered the home about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday after receiving a complaint that the living conditions in DiGiovanna’s home were causing the animals distress, said Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross.
All 11 dogs were taken out of the residence, some “underweight, filthy, flea ridden, ungroomed, and covered in urine,” Gross said. Fly excrement and cobwebs covered the interior of the home’s walls and ceilings and “rats scurried about inside the broken out portions of the walls and floors,” he said.
Ten of the dogs were confined to a small bedroom on urine- and feces-soaked sheets with live electrical wires exposed and hypodermic needles and other drug paraphernalia strewn about, Gross said.
Code officials deemed the property unfit for human occupancy, authorities said.
The dogs will be available for adoption to the public once they are fully recovered from their ailments. Gross said that DiGiovanna was held in police custody on two active arrest warrants for unrelated cases.
The defendant was scheduled to appear in First District Court in Central Islip on Monday.
