Carlos Lauro of Riverhead gets year in jail after shooting dog, prosecutors say

A Riverhead man pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally shooting a German shepherd dog with a rifle at his property last week, where authorities later discovered nearly 100 neglected animals living in “deplorable” conditions, Suffolk County prosecutors said.

In an unusually swift case, Carlos Lauro, 76, pleaded guilty Thursday — exactly one week after his arrest — to the unjustified killing of an animal and third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle stemming from an unrelated case.

Riverhead Town Justice Lori Hulse immediately sentenced Lauro to one year in jail and issued him a 20-year ban on owning or possessing any animal. All of the surviving animals owned by Lauro were surrendered to authorities, prosecutors said.

“Our Biological, Environmental, and Animal Safety Team, the Suffolk County Police Department, and the Riverhead Police Department put together a solid case, and the defendant’s only recourse was to plead guilty,” said Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “This kind of cruelty will not be tolerated by my office, nor the people of Suffolk County.”

Lauro was originally charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, three counts of neglect of an impounded animal and several unclassified misdemeanors.

He was represented by the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County, which did not respond to a request for comment.

The investigation was launched on Jan. 10 when a 1-year-old German shepherd dog named Blitzkrieg was taken to a veterinarian hospital in Westbury and had to be euthanized after he was found to be paralyzed from a gunshot wound to the head, prosecutors said.

According to a witness, the dog was found shot that evening lying in a pen on Lauro’s property next to a dead goat, authorities said.

When detectives with the district attorney's Biological, Environmental and Animal Safety Team unit arrived at Lauro’s home, they learned the defendant had previously shot and killed a 6-month-old German shepherd puppy named Cranky one month earlier because the dog was refusing to go back inside his house, prosecutors said.

Authorities said Lauro had shot Cranky once in the back, and when another resident took the dog inside the house to treat his wounds, Lauro dragged the animal back outside and fatally shot him in the head.

Detectives also discovered five surviving Belgian Malinois-Dutch shepherd mix dogs, a border collie, and two other German shepherd dogs, along with goats, pigs, cows and chickens that were malnourished and without access to clean food and water, prosecutors said.

Several deceased farm animals, including a baby goat and pig, were also found on the property. The circumstances of their deaths were under investigation.

“Animal abuser Carlos Lauro will spend the rest of 2024 in jail and won't be allowed to own another companion animal until he is nearly 100 years old,” said John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, which removed nearly 100 animals, including three cows, 10 freezing piglets, a dozen waterfowl, and dozens of sick and injured chickens, sheep, goats, and a bunny from Lauro’s property.

The group is working on finding the animals new homes.

By Robert Brodsky

robert.brodsky@newsday.com@BrodskyRobert

Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.