DA probes Hempstead animal shelter, workers transferred

The Nassau district attorney's office is investigating Hempstead Town's animal shelter, and the town has removed the shelter's director and adoption coordinator amid its own review of the agency.

The town said a recent internal look at the shelter had found "issues that call for further assessment and investigation." Officials contacted the district attorney's office, which said it began investigating this week.

Neither the attorney's office nor the town would divulge the focus of the probe. The shelter remains open.

In a statement Wednesday, the town said a review of shelter policies and procedures is under way aimed at making sure animals at the facility, on Beltagh Avenue in Wantagh, are well cared for and that good homes are found for them.

"All I can tell you is that the animals continue to receive excellent care," said Hempstead spokesman Mike Deery.

Acting shelter director Charles Milone, who has been a Hempstead employee for eight years, and adoption coordinator Regina Thorne, a town employee for 24 years, have been transferred from their posts while the investigations are under way, but are still with the town.

Reached at their homes Wednesday, Milone and Thorne declined to comment.

Frances Lucivero, a Levittown animal rescuer, said she and other rescuers had tried recently to visit the shelter but were told they could not enter. A frequent shelter visitor, Lucivero said she could not think of anything the two employees, or the local animal rescue community, may have done to warrant attention from law enforcement.

The shelter has a budget of $3.3 million and 29 full-time workers.