A Long Island man is facing multiple counts of animal cruelty for allegedly keeping 11 dogs in a deplorable, urine-soaked home and exposing two of the pooches to cocaine, officials said Wednesday.
Christopher DiGiovanna, 42, was already in custody for a Nov. 23 assault when Suffolk County cops and Town of Brookhaven Animal Control and Code Enforcement executed a search warrant in his Centereach home and found the 11 malnourished pups.
Nearly all the dogs were found in a small bedroom on urine- and feces-soaked sheets, the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said. The animals were underweight, flea-ridden, filthy and “covered in urine.”
“The air was so noxious with ammonia from urine, feces, mold and mildew that it stung investigators’ eyes and throats making it difficult to breathe,” Suffolk County SPCA Chief Roy Gross said in a statement.
Conditions were so poor that fly excrement and cobwebs covered the home’s walls and ceilings and investigators found rats freely scurrying into the broken walls and floors.
Investigators found hypodermic needles and drug paraphernalia in the same room where most of the dogs were found.
Preliminary tests revealed that at least two of the dogs had been exposed to cocaine, SPCA officials said.
DiGiovanna was charged with 11 counts of animal abuse, as well as neglect, according to court documents. He was already being held on $25,000 bail for the assault case, which occurred on Nov. 10 when the animal abuse charges were added.
Gross said the animals were taken to a vet and will be able to be adopted “upon medical recovery.”
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