A infamous Lengthy Island “roadside zoo’’ coated up the deaths of scores of horrifically abused animals in its care — together with a mountain lion that drowned, in line with an ex-government public-safety officer.
Meredith Tinsley, a former longtime Brookhaven officer whose duties included patrolling the Holtsville Wildlife & Ecology Middle, has joined different whistleblowers in slamming the middle, including her personal morbid claims of stomach-churning animal neglect — as nicely allegations of a cover-up.
Tinsley instructed The Put up that heart higher-ups directed her to not report the deaths of the mountain lion and different tragic creatures — or when an eagle went lacking — whereas working within the 2000s and early 2010s.
“It is the general consensus to lie, to defraud, to pretend like nothing is happening,” Tinsley, 55, mentioned of the troubled refuge, which has been managed by the city of Brookhaven’s freeway division because it opened within the Nineteen Seventies.
Tinsley testified at an explosive Brookhaven city board assembly Thursday, together with a number of ex-staffers of the power, which has come beneath hearth over allegations of woefully insufficient veterinary care and lethal animal neglect.
The group leveled hair-raising allegations starting from animals dying from publicity to unauthorized employees slicing into the creatures with razor blades — ensuing, at occasions, in everlasting disabilities.
When the zoo couldn’t find an eagle in its care, “I was told, ‘Don’t say anything to anybody, we can’t let anybody know we lost the eagle,’ ” Tinsley mentioned. “I called 911. I reported it.”
She mentioned she was incessantly instructed by some higher-ups that if lacking animals had been reported to authorities or up the work chain, “We received’t get any funding.
“We just have to wait until we the funding,” she claimed she was instructed.
A mountain lion additionally drowned in its enclosure one evening – and Tinsley mentioned staffers had been instructed by bosses, “Don’t tell anybody, because we’ll never get another mountain lion.”
The lion’s enclosure wasn’t cleaned earlier than its alternative was ushered in, she added — a protocol that Tinsley claims was customary.
Then its alternative wasn’t consuming, so it was fed anti-anxiety meds, mentioned Tinsley — who was fired in 2013. The ex-employee, who’s black, mentioned she was fired due to racism.
Rose Lynch, a staffer at a neighborhood animal hospital that handled the middle’s Peking duck Nessy for lead poisoning, instructed the city board it was “heartbreaking that [the bird’s] accidents had turn out to be so extreme, particularly in human care.
“Throughout this process, it was made abundantly clear that the Holtsville Ecology Site wanted to work against medical advice … and categorically refus[ed] to get any of their other water fowl tested for lead poisoning,” Lynch mentioned.
The native activist group Humane Lengthy Island claims roughly a dozen animals have died within the heart’s care prior to now yr alone — however that lots of the deaths would have been preventable with correct medical care.
The Brookhaven Freeway Division didn’t return a Put up request for remark.
However Dan Losquadro, Brookhaven’s superintendent of highways, defended the sanctuary at Thursday’s board assembly, claiming it has handed USDA audits “many times” — together with a latest unannounced inspection.
“The care of the animals is of paramount importance to this entire town board,” Panico insisted. “We’re conducting our own investigation into what is fact and what is fiction, and we at the end will make a decision.”
Brookhaven officers introduced the city deliberate to launch its personal inside probe, as nicely. An investigation by the Suffolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace and the state Division of Environmental Conservation, which licenses the refuge, is already beneath method.
A file of alleged neglect compiled by Humane Lengthy Island and shared with The Put up detailed extra disturbing allegations that run the gamut.
The analysis claims the freeway division secretary was instructed “to ignore any tips about her and to void any complaints about the Ecology Site at large” when a hybrid wolf went lacking in 2018.
Incidents of animals escaping the refuge had been steady over time, from the eagle and hybrid wolf to a home cat and a pine marten named Betty and a goat named JB, the doc says.
Betty was reportedly later present in a storm drain.
Considerations concerning the disappearances had been usually dismissed, the group says.
There have been loads of different troubling complaints, too.
When upwards of 15 birds had been crammed into too-small cages, a supervisor dismissed the abusive state of affairs, saying, “They’re husband or wife” or, “That’s her pimp,” Tinsley instructed The Put up.
One other former Holtsville staffer, Kaitlyn Lombardi, mentioned on the assembly that she give up a number of days into the job final yr after witnessing animals stuffed into “cramped, deteriorating” enclosures.
“Staff members seemed to rationalize the conditions, and nobody seemed to care about addressing the issues,” mentioned Lombardi, alleging that some animals had been usually left unfed.
Whereas activists akin to Humane Lengthy Island Govt Director John Di Leonardo say the antiquated zoo have to be shuttered completely, Tinsley mentioned she wouldn’t thoughts seeing it reopen at some point.
“You can bring it back after it’s cleaned up and cleaned out,” she mentioned, “and ensure these animals are taken care of, be sure they’ve the correct care.
“[Right now], it’s an unacceptable establishment.”
