Superior Court Judge Patricia Delbueno Cleary signed a consent order Monday permanently barring Christopher Lance Vaccaro and Tina Perna from having goats and sheep on their Millstone property, where hundreds of animals were found freezing and improperly cared for over the past two winters.
Vaccaro and Perna were required to pay $10,000 to Dr. Stuart Goldman, the Middletown animal activist who sued the couple over their treatment of the animals on their farm on Stillhouse Road in Millstone, said Dante DiPirro, an attorney specializing in animal law who represented Goldman in the case.
DiPirro said he is not aware of any animal abuse cases with awards as high as in this one. The case also is unusual in that it was brought under a seldom-used provision in the state's animal cruelty law that allows a private citizen to bring a cruelty case against alleged animal abusers on behalf of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
"It's an exciting result for animals," DiPIrro said of the outcome.
Vaccaro's farm first gained attention in the winter of 2014, when nearly 200 sick and malnourished animals were discovered in deplorable conditions on the property. Authorities said most of the animals were without fresh water, or the water buckets were frozen solid. Some more animals were found dead on the property and likely died from exposure to the winter's extreme cold, authorities said.
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| Tina Perna |
The Monmouth County SPCA filed charges against Vaccaro in Millstone municipal court, where he was fined $2,000 and ordered not to bring any more animals onto the farm. However, authorities again were alerted to problems on the farm in September, when a goat was found tangled in wire and dead.
As more charges were pending against Vaccaro and Perna in Millstone municipal court related to the September incident, Goldman, who is a dentist, accompanied SPCA officials back to the farm in January, in sub-freezing weather, where he found about 200 goats and sheep again without proper shelter, dehydrated and emaciated, and nursing mothers without proper water, Goldman said.
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| Christopher Lance Vaccaro |
Goldman then went to Superior Court for an immediate order compelling Vaccaro and Perna to provide sufficient water, bedding and shelter to the animals and allowing Goldman to go on the property to inspect the conditions the animals were living in and to remove them when necessary to take them for veterinary care. The order was granted by Delbueno Cleary on Feb. 27, Goldman said.
Vaccaro and Perna were back in Millstone municipal court on March 23, where they pleaded guilty to improper care of animals and were ordered to remove the approximately 200 sheep and goats from the property.
The consent order finalized on Monday settles the lawsuit filed by Goldman when he went to Superior Court in February seeking the order to compel the couple to properly care for the animals, according to DiPirro. He said that Goldman brought the lawsuit because the couple continued to deny their animals proper care, despite being brought up on charges by the SPCA.
"The conduct did not stop," DiPirro said. "It required a significant sanction to keep it from happening again."
Goldman said the outcome of the case shows, "There is a price for abusing these animals."
The judgment will reimburse Goldman for out-of-pocket expenses he took on to look after the animals, including veterinarian bills, DiPirro said.
(APP.com - July 3, 2015)
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