Animal welfare authorities seized greater than 100 animals from a Lengthy Island residence this week — together with a South American ostrich, an enormous African snail, two prairie canine and an endangered tiger salamander — after a tip they obtained about unique animals led them to their proprietor’s doorstep.
“He was working a pop-up circus,” mentioned Detective Matt Roper, director of legislation enforcement for the Nassau County SPCA. “Bringing these animals out in public and letting youngsters play with these animals.”
Detective Roper mentioned the animals’ proprietor was given court docket summonses for a number of state and native violations, together with endangering the general public and housing and possessing endangered species. Federal authorities are additionally investigating, he mentioned.
Detective Roper emphasised that there have been no indicators that the animals had been abused or uncared for.
“They have been all cared for,” Detective Roper mentioned. “They have been simply in violation of being held or stored as both pets or for exhibition functions.”
Detective Roper, who declined to call the animals’ proprietor as a result of the investigation is constant, mentioned that on Tuesday the authorities took 104 animals from the basement and yard of the home, which is in North Bellmore.
Humane Lengthy Island, an animal advocacy group that took custody of dozens of the animals that have been seized, recognized their proprietor as Matthew Spohrer, 32. He was issued 30 violations regarding unlawful possession of animals, the group mentioned in a information launch.
An individual who answered the cellphone at a quantity listed to Mr. Spohrer’s father on Friday mentioned that Matthew Spohrer had no remark.
A lot of the animals that have been seized are authorized to own in New York, however “unlawful to own in Nassau County with out the right variances,” Detective Roper mentioned. “You shouldn’t have a peacock in your yard, .”
A few of the animals have been harmful. A lesser rhea, a chook popularly often called a South American ostrich, may be aggressive and has talons that may attain as much as six inches in size.
At the least one of many animals, the enormous African snail, is federally banned in america. The snail, which might carry a parasitic nematode that may result in meningitis, is taken into account an invasive species.
“Prairie canine have been recognized to transmit the bubonic plague,” Detective Roper mentioned. “Do we’d like an outbreak of the bubonic plague in Nassau County as a result of someone had an unlawful animal that he purchased on the web?”
“This gentleman that’s our topic, he’s this self-proclaimed Steve Irwin,” Detective Roper mentioned, referring to the well-known zookeeper and conservationist often called the Crocodile Hunter. “There’s no method {that a} gentleman of his age might have the expertise to deal with these animals in his dad and mom’ basement.”
The New York State Division of Environmental Conservation, the Hempstead Constructing Division and america Division of Agriculture have been additionally current for the search, Detective Roper mentioned.
John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and government director of Humane Lengthy Island, mentioned dozens of animals that his company took in included the five-month-old rhea, which the proprietor referred to as “Edgar.”
“He thought she was male,” he mentioned, “however she’s feminine.”
Mr. Di Leonardo mentioned the animals’ proprietor admitted to purchasing the rhea egg on eBay whereas he was drunk.
“Wild animals belong within the wild,” he mentioned. “They don’t belong, , at a good. They don’t belong in somebody’s basement or somebody’s shed. You realize, they actually don’t belong within the suburbs.”
Sheelagh McNeill contributed analysis.
