PEEKSKILL, NY — A Westchester woman has been charged after officials found neglected animals. Officials describe a horrific scene.
WARNING: The accounts and images that follow will be disturbing to many readers.
SPCA Westchester announced on Thursday that their Humane Law Enforcement Unit (HLE), under the direction of Ernest Lungaro, arrested and charged 33-year-old Shannon Deleg, of Peekskill, with three counts of animal cruelty.
After receiving a tip on the SPCA’s confidential animal cruelty hotline about a dog in distress, the HLE Unit went to Deleg’s apartment, where they found an “emaciated pit bull curled up in a ball whose ribs and spine were clearly visible.” The dog, who is now known as “Gracie,” is described as being “skin and bones,” weighing just 27 lbs. when a dog her size should weigh twice that amount.
During their investigation, HLE officers found two more emaciated mixed breed dogs in the home. Both of the animals were locked inside a “filthy, cramped cage and forced to live in thick layers of urine and feces.”
The SPCA says that all three dogs were so malnourished and dehydrated that they were immediately seized and rushed to SPCA Westchester’s Rescue Center for emergency care.
“These poor dogs likely cried and begged for food and it’s heartbreaking that their pleas were ignored,” Shannon Laukhuf, SPCA Westchester’s Chief Executive Officer, said. “We are so thankful that a Good Samaritan called the SPCA’s cruelty hotline before they were starved to death.”
If anyone witnesses or suspects an animal is being neglected or abused, they are asked to call the SPCA’s confidential animal cruelty hotline at (914) 941-7797.
SPCA Westchester is a no-kill animal rescue center located in Briarcliff Manor and is not affiliated with any national animal welfare organizations. Find out more on their website.
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