The action comes two days after Christopher Vaccaro and his girlfriend Tina Perna were served with a notice to appear in court in Freehold because of the Monmouth County SPCA's ongoing concerns about the condition of the animals at their 18-acre farm on Stillhouse Road.
The complaint filed on Wednesday on behalf of the SPCA claimed there was no water for the animals to drink and they weren't being fed. It also alleged they weren't being sheltered properly against the elements.
When there was water available, it was frozen, the complaint said.
Under the order issued by Superior Court Judge Patricia Del Bueno Cleary, Vaccaro and Perna will have to provide at least 100 gallons of potable water daily for each of the five animal enclosures on the farm. They will have to provide sufficient food, as set by the state Department of Agriculture and the state's animal cruelty statutes. They also have to devise ways to keep the water from freezing.
They also will be required to allow the Monmouth County SPCA personnel on the property to confirm that they are complying with Cleary's order. The SPCA would have the authority to remove any animal in imminent danger of death, according to the order.
Dante DiPirro, attorney for Stuart Goldman, a concerned citizen and animal activist who brought the suit on behalf of the SPCA, said animal protection agency has volunteers ready to shelter any of the farm animals that would need to be relocated. He said the agency would start fundraising efforts to pay for medical care for the animals if it reaches that point.
Cleary set April 24 as the date for her to address the issue of whether the animals should be permanently removed from the farm.
Vaccaro has been cited on several occasions after an inspection revealed "deplorable" conditions, including no food and water, carcasses on the property and a dead goat tangled in wire, according to court documents.
Besides this civil action, the Monmouth County SPCA charged Vaccaro and Perna recently with 15 counts of animal cruelty. That case is expected to go to trial in Millstone municipal court on March 23, Mordas said.
The lack of water was of particular concern because of the estimated 50-60 nursing mother goats and sheep what were dehydrated, DiPirro said. He said a state veterinarian noted a nursing animal needs to consume at least a gallon of water daily.
He said a veterinarian found a dead goat hidden under a tarp during her inspection on Sunday. He said she noted that goats drank from a stream of water that ran off a large pile of manure.
"They need some temporary restraints so that more animals don't die," DiPirro said.
He said Cathy Ball, the veterinarian for the state Department of Agriculture, inspected the animals and found that many of them were diseased or slowly starving to death. Ball noted some had laminitis, a potentially fatal foot disease, and that 20 to 30 percent of them would die within weeks if conditions did not improve, DiPirro said
"These are serious allegations," Cleary said.
But Greg Mordas, attorney for Vaccaro and Perna, said their veterinarian, Matthew Edson, inspected the animals on Thursday and found that they had adequate water supplies and shelter and appeared to be well fed. Mordas disputed Ball's claim about the laminitis and said the animals suffered from foot rot, a condition easily treated with two courses of antibiotics.
Cleary said either condition would account for the animals' inability to walk.
She observed that Edson had last checked the animals almost a year ago and said this latest checkup was clearly in response to the suit.
"These seem to be reactive rather than proactive actions on the part of the defendants," Cleary said.
She said it was clear that as recently as last Sunday the animals weren't receiving proper care.
"The court finds that these animals will suffer harm if an injunction is not issued," Cleary said.
Perna, who was seated beside Vaccaro in chairs behind their attorney, started to complain, prompting a sheriff's officer to yell "Be quiet" from across the room.
At the end of the hearing, Perna left in tears.
Mordas said Perna and Vaccaro raise the animals to sell for their meat.
But DiPirro said theirs was more like an animal "hoarding" situation because there was no segregation of the male and female goats and sheep, causing a "population explosion."
He estimated there were more than 250 animals on the farm but Mordas said it was most likely closer to 180.
(NJ.com - Feb 27, 2015)
Earlier:
No comments:
Post a Comment