SPCA: Animal cruelty charge for owner of abandoned pit bull

The dog had been living in an abandoned house in what Suffolk County SPCA officials called “deplorable” conditions — dehydrated, covered in its excrement.

As a result Terral Ellis, 34, of Centereach, owner of the abandoned pit bull, was arrested Monday and charged with animal cruelty for failure to provide proper sustenance, the SPCA said. He was ordered to appear Aug. 25 in First District Court in Central Islip.

The male pit bull was transported by the Brookhaven Animal Shelter to its facility. The status of the dog’s recovery was not known.

Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross said Ellis was living in the abandoned home on Smithtown Polk Boulevard in Centereach and said he left the dog in the house with no food or water for more than 24 hours. “The interior conditions the dog was living in were deplorable,” the SPCA said in a statement.

The SPCA urges anyone who witnesses animal cruelty to call 631-382-7722. All calls will be kept confidential.

“We have so many cases,” Gross said Tuesday, “where people can’t take care of themselves. Why they bring an animal into the picture under those circumstances is beyond me . . . A situation like this, it’s just not acceptable. Period.”

Gross urged Long Islanders that “if you know anything, if you suspect anything, you have to make the call.

“An animal can’t call us.”

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”