MILLER PLACE, NEW YORK (AP) – Authorities rescued nearly 300 rabbits, birds and other animals from a filthy home in New York and charged a self-help book author with cruel confinement of animals, prosecutors announced.
“Operation Open Cage” started October 1 when investigators were contacted by animal control officers who reported a hoarding situation in the hamlet of Miller Place on Long Island, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said.
The owner of the home, Karin Keyes, 51, was charged with multiple counts of cruel confinement of animals. She’s a social worker and the author of a self-published book titled Journey Into Awareness: Reclaiming Your Life.
Teams from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals helped the district attorney’s Biological, Environmental and Animal Safety Team and local officers in removing and transporting the animals to animal welfare organisations around New York for medical care.
“When ASPCA responders arrived on the property, it was clear that immediate intervention was necessary to remove hundreds of neglected animals from the inhumane and brutal conditions they were subjected to and provide them with expert care,” said Matt Bershadker, president and CEO of the ASPCA.
Brookhaven Town Council member Jane Bonner said in a statement, “The level of cruelty and the abhorrent conditions that the animals were subjected to is beyond comprehension.
The awful neglect that they were forced to endure cannot be excused or explained in any way.”
