A euthanized pit bull at the Riverhead Town Animal Shelter has sparked renewed criticism by animal rights activists of the town's animal control policies and its animal control officer.
Animal rights activists Pat Lynch, of New York City and Gail Waller, of Glen Cove, complained to the Town Board yesterday about the dog being destroyed last month, arguing that the action was unnecessary and calling for the dismissal of animal control officer Lou Coronesi.
Coronesi has a criminal record of mistreating animals that should be grounds for dismissal from the animal control officer's job, Waller told board members during the public comment portion of yesterday's meeting.
Over Supervisor Sean Walter's objection to discussing "a personnel matter" in a public session of the board, Waller read from a 2003 arrest report of the Arizona Fish and Game Department, which charged Coronesi with hunting without a license, unlawful possession of wildlife and unlawful possession of restricted wildlife.
According to the report, Coronesi was arrested in August 2003 after Arizona fish and game officers saw him putting a Gila monster into a pillow case in Bagdad, Ariz. Officers found three tarantulas and a small diamondback rattlesnack in plastic containers inside the vehicle Mr. Coronesi was driving, according to the report.
Coronesi later pleaded “no contest” to the charges, all misdemeanors.
"This has a direct bearing on his ability to serve the town as a public employee charged with taking care of animals," Waller said.
After the meeting both the supervisor and Riverhead Police Chief David Hegermiller supported Coronesi, who, according to Hegermiller, has been a Riverhead Town Animal Control Officer "since 1996 or '97." The chief acknowledged that he has long known about Coronesi's record in Arizona.
"Everything is cleared up. I fully trust his ability to deal with animals, especially dogs," Hegermiller said.
"Lou has my support 100 percent," Walter said in an interview. "He did something stupid. He paid his fine. It is over. It was over in 2003," Walter said.
But it's not over for animal rights activists and shelter volunteers, who say Coronesi makes them feel unwelcome at the shelter, where, they argue, animals not receive proper veterinary care or the socialization necessary to be able to place them in adoptive homes.
Bruno, the pit bull euthanized Dec. 21, is a case in point, according to the animal rights advocates. He was kept in isolation at the town shelter from the day he was surrendered by his owner to the day he was killed, according to RSVP animal rescue group volunteer Sue Hansen of Rocky Point, who questioned the board at its Dec. 21 meeting about Bruno being killed that day.
"This dog bit a child," the supervisor responded.
Walter said the dog's owner, who surrendered the dog to the shelter, stated on the intake form that the dog had no bite history.
"But the child was taken to the hospital," Walter said. "The hospital contacted health department. The health department contacted former owner and the shelter. The animal taken to vet. The vet said the animal was dangerous. The ACO said the animal was dangerous. The animal was euthanized," Walter said.
"We followed the policy to the letter," he said.
But the account of the dog's bite history given by the supervisor at the Dec. 21 meeting is not what's in the health department report, which was obtained by RiverheadLOCAL.
The health department report indicates that the dog bit his 22-year-old owner as the owner was attempting to break up a fight between him and another dog. The owner suffered three "superficial lacerations" to his hand, according to the report.
"The policy requires a finding that a dog is both dangerous and beyond rehabilitation," Hansen told board members Dec. 21.
"I'm not the bad guy here," Walter said at yesterday's board meeting. "I'm trying to help."
In an interview last night, Walter said he was "sickened" to learn recently that dogs at the town shelter are not given routine preventive veterinary care. Shelter volunteer Vince Taldone, of Riverhead, said at a recent Town Board meeting he had adopted a dog from the town facility that had heartworm and a variety of preventable illnesses.
"That's ridiculous," he said.
"We have never had a vet come to the shelter on a regular basis," Walter said. "That's also ridiculous." The supervisor said he has asked his secretary, Carol Sclafani, who happens to be a licensed veterinary technician, to obtain proposals from three veterinarians for maintenance services.
"I'm hoping by the second meeting in January, we'll be appointing one," Walter said. The cost of the services will be funded by increased dog license fees adopted by the Town Board at yesterday's meeting, he said.
The supervisor also said he also plans to have Sclafani spend at least a half-day per week at the animal shelter "doing what a vet tech would do."
Councilman James Wooten, the Town Board liaison to the animal shelter, has advocated privatizing the operation of the facility, for which the town has twice solicited proposals. Each time, the only response to the request for proposals was submitted by the RSVP animal rescue group, whose members have long been at odds with Coronesi. Each time, the Town Board has taken no action on the proposal.
Wooten told RiverheadLOCAL in October, after the second RFP deadline had passed without interest from any organization other than RSVP, that he couldn't support awarding a contract to run the shelter to the group.
"I'm not sure they're organized enough to take this on," Wooten said of the volunteer group. "And there's been so much contentiousness in the past. It's a very tenuous relationship. I don't know if they can have a good working relationship with the town," he said.
