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Hundreds ask about adopting dogs seized in East Northport

BY CARL MACGOWAN AND LAURA RIVERA | carl.macgowan@newsday.com

3:59 PM EDT, May 7, 2008

As details emerged Wednesday of a suspected puppy mill in an East Northport home, hundreds of people called for information about adopting the dozens of dogs seized from the house.

The house at 36 Wicks Rd. was in "deplorable" condition, with 56 dogs crammed into cramped quarters and living on top of one another, officials said Wednesday during a news conference at the Huntington Animal Shelter, where the dogs were taken after being seized on Tuesday.

The dogs, including puppies and some pooches as old as 7, were living amid their own feces and moldy food, said Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Their fur was matted and the house smelled so bad, it had to be aerated by Commack firefighters before inspectors could enter, he said.

"This is one of those houses that you go into and you never forget," he said. "There's no reason why any animal has to live in the conditions they had to live in."

Irene Monroig, 66, was charged with animal cruelty -- technically, "failure to provide proper sustenance" under state law -- after the SPCA and Huntington officials inspected the house Tuesday afternoon. If convicted, she faces up to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Huntington officials said they may charge her with housing code violations.

"The house at this point is condemned because the conditions are deplorable," said Huntington Supervisor Frank Petrone. "The house cannot be inhabited in this condition."

Monroig is not being held, but "we know her whereabouts," Gross said.

Monroig, whom officials suspect was breeding and selling puppies at the home, was suspended for five years and fined $1,000 in 2001 by the American Kennel Club, a club spokeswoman said Wednesday. Officials of the club, which registers purebred dogs, said inspectors found that a litter of dogs she had registered were actually of mixed breed. Monroig was reinstated in 2006, but her privileges are on hold pending the outcome of the Suffolk case, the spokeswoman said.

Complaints from neighbors against Monroig go back at least two years, but Town of Huntington officials said they could not pursue an investigation earlier because she was not home when inspectors tried to speak to her.

After receiving a complaint on Tuesday, Huntington public safety officers blocked Monroig's driveway until she emerged from the house, said Bruce Richard, director of the town's public safety office.

"When confronted, she willingly let us in," Richard said.

Inspectors found most of the dogs living in the basement of the one-story home, officials said.

Alarmed by past incidents of animal abuse, state and county legislators have called for the state Department of Agriculture and Markets to share its authority to inspect pet dealers and breeding facilities with the Suffolk SPCA. The state agency has only six employees to inspect all New York licensed dealers and breeders, said Suffolk County Legis. Jack Eddington of Medford, who introduced a non-binding home rule message calling for the state to grant enforcement powers to Suffolk SPCA.

"The state just doesn't have the manpower, the personnel, to do spot checks," Eddington said. "We could use six inspectors on Long Island." Gross said one state inspector is assigned to the New York metropolitan region. A Department of Agriculture and Markets spokeswoman could not immediately confirm those figures.

Monroig signed over her animals -- including a parrot and two squirrels -- to the SPCA, which will put the dogs up for adoption.

By early Wednesday afternoon, the SPCA had received more than 600 calls from people interested in adopting the dogs, Gross said. An application is available at the organizations' Web site, suffolkspca.org.

Gross said most of the dogs will be up for adoption in a week after being treated, washed and spayed or neutered. The smallest puppies, some only days or weeks old, will have to stay with their mothers for several more weeks or months before they can be adopted, he said.