Long Island News

A pet goat is discovered strangled in Kings Park, with someone’s belt still strapped tightly around its lifeless body. Another is found decapitated in Islip. A cat is lynched in Patchogue. An Islip Terrace man films women crushing small animals. Somebody tortures then sets afire a dog in Brentwood.

These gruesome scenes are just a few of the 2,000 animal abuse and neglect cases handled annually by the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), a nonprofit providing humane needs and enforcement of cruelty to animal laws throughout the county. Most recently, the organization broke up what has been described as “a concentration camp” for animals at a house in Selden.

But the downturned economy has been taking its toll on Suffolk’s animal protectors. According to Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross, the recession has bitten a hefty chunk out of supporters’ wallets, and consequently, donations are down about 50 percent since the downswing began. The Suffolk SPCA, he stresses, is funded completely by donations and not assoiated with the American SPCA. And in addition to its regular yearly caseload, Gross explains, his officers are weathering a roughly 20 percent spike in instances of foreclosed homeowners leaving their pets behind to die. That’s on top of a national and countywide increase in dogfighting and cockfighting cases, he adds.