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Court papers: East Northport woman rescued animals

BY LUIS PEREZ | luis.perez@newsday.com

9:54 PM EDT, May 13, 2008

Far from being a heartless animal abuser out to make a fast buck, an East Northport woman suspected of illegally breeding dogs says in court documents expected to be filed Wednesday that she ran an honest animal rescue service "without any profit or gain."

In a sworn affidavit provided by her attorney, Irene Monroig, 66, asks a state Supreme Court justice to issue a temporary restraining order barring the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from spaying, neutering, placing for adoption or euthanizing 56 small dogs, a blue front Amazon parrot and two baby squirrels seized from Monroig's home on May 6.

The legal action, according to Monroig's attorney, shows that rather than being an irresponsible dog handler, as prosecutors and the animal welfare agency contend, Monroig is concerned for their well being.

"She loves them very much," said Eric Naiburg, of Central Islip, who said his client welcomed the chance for her dogs to be examined.

Last Tuesday, Huntington Town inspectors, Suffolk police and SPCA officers removed 56 dogs -- mostly small breeds -- and a parrot from Monroig's Wicks Road home after gaining permission from her to enter the house, they said. The dogs, many with matted fur and parasites, lived in cramped, filthy conditions with moldy food and feces, SPCA officials said. The seizure came after neighbors complained, officials said.

Suffolk prosecutors are awaiting a review of the animals' health to decide how they will proceed. Monroig has not been criminally charged.

But in the affidavit, Monroig says she was not shown a warrant authorizing officials to enter her home and remove the animals. And she defends herself as a selfless animal lover whose work was known to the town and her neighbors.

"My possession of the aforesaid dogs was not part of a 'puppy mill,' " Monroig says in the affidavit, "but was an animal rescue endeavor which I have been engaged in at this same location for more than 45 years."

But Roy Gross, chief of the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said, "The conditions were deplorable enough that the house was condemned by the town. If that's a person who loved animals, there is something seriously wrong."