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Pet Rescue Nightmare

A Middle Island pet rescue has been accused of selling sick puppies, costing new pet owners over $6,000 in vet bills. The ‘Friends of Freddie’ pet rescue, located at 206 Middle Country Rd. in Middle Island, has been operating on and off for over a year, adopting out dogs and puppies, who vets say are sick and unfit for adoption. Families looking to adopt their new furry family member are met with horror as they incur thousands of dollars in veterinary expenses after completing the adoption process. In the month of March 2017, at least eight puppies died due to the rescue owner’s negligence. These accusations have sparked suspicions from Brookhaven town residents, and those who have adopted sick animals from this shelter before. Kristen Addiss, 27, and her boyfriend, Mike Levi, adopted a puppy on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017 from Friends of Freddie. The couple named their puppy “Layla.” Unusual coughing and labored breathing prompted Kristen and Mike to contact Patchogue Animal Hospital, the veterinarian affiliated with the rescue. “The Veterinarian diagnosed Layla with kennel cough, something that we were told is common in puppies and it was nothing to be concerned about,” stated Addiss. With multiple vet visits back and forth, Addiss and Levi were given the green light to take Layla home. Addiss stated, “We were told that the cough would get worse before it got better and that she was looking better.” Relieved, Addiss and Levi took their puppy home for the weekend. It was during the next week that the couple noticed Layla’s condition worsening. Concerned, they took Layla to Island Veterinary Hospital in Coram for a second opinion. After a series of X-rays, Layla was diagnosed with pneumonia. Layla’s one week checkup led to an unexpected discovery, the young pup had Canine Distemper Virus. After hospitalization, and being given a 50/50 chance of survival, Addiss and Levi lost their 11-week-old Layla on March 5, 2017. While checking the vet records provided during adoption, Addiss and Levi discovered that Layla had not received a vaccine for Canine Distemper prior to being adopted. Tracy Butcher, a volunteer rescue transporter from Ontario, New York, explains the difference between shelters and rescues; “Shelters are subsidized by the town or municipality, and rescues do it all on a volunteer basis, often having to do fundraising to offset the costs of the dogs they rescue.” Shelters are regulated by the township and are supported by tax dollars, providing fixed adoption fees. Rescue’s run on donations and volunteers. Butcher stated, “$450 adoption fee for puppies is slightly high, but not completely out of line. In most rescues, dogs are spayed/neutered, have all their shots, and are microchipped.” Butcher adds, “They should have been vaccinated, [against] distemper definitely.” Addiss explained, “Our family veterinarian filled out paperwork for a pet lemon law stating that Layla was unfit for adoption. Under these circumstances, we approached Friends of Freddie hoping they would do the right thing for us and reimburse us with what they owe us under the New York State pet lemon law. When they found out our vet bills were approaching $6,000, they said they wouldn't pay us and told us to take them to court.” Shortly after this encounter, Addiss and Levi discovered that they are not alone in their fight. Kenneth Harsch Jr. of Wading River also adopted a sick puppy from Friends of Freddie. “He was coughing so much I got concerned about his breathing. I brought him to my local vet to be looked at because I didn't trust the place she wanted me to go. My vet did a physical exam and X-rays and determined he had advanced pneumonia,” Harsch stated. “I spent the next few days home with him taking time off of work. He got worse. I took him back to the vet and he told me to get him to an emergency hospital right away. He had advanced pneumonia, kennel cough, and worms. I was told he was de-wormed,” said Harsch. Nearly $6,200 later, Harsch’s Chihuahua-Daschund mix, Kody, made a full recovery. Ken explained, “When you see the look in a 10-week-old puppies eyes it breaks you down. He spent the next 4 days in ICU. Luckily he lived and is now a happy healthy puppy. The emergency room vet and my regular vet both wrote me unfit for sale letters saying the dog was so sick he should have never left their facility.” Concerned about other pets in the shelter, Harsch contacted the rescue founder, Barbara Sanelli. “I've called Barbara a few times confronting her about adopting sick dogs and she screamed at myself and my mother-in-law, calling us horrible people for questioning her and disputing the credit card charge,” explained Harsch. “I also had to call 4 times before deciding to go down there face to face to get the vaccination records for my dog. She couldn't find them and just jotted some stuff down on a generic photocopied paper and said ‘here's what we gave him.’” Amanda Stein, of Miller Place, adopted her puppy “Lucy” from Friends of Freddie. “She was super sick for a while. [She had] Giardia, eight parasites, kennel cough and an upper respiratory infection. She’s been on tons of antibiotics, we are at the vet once a week and she’s almost better,” Stein explained, “We are one of the few lucky ones. Everyone else got scammed and ripped off way worse by them.” Courtney, a licensed vet tech at Farmingville Animal Hospital, explained, “Giardia are protozoan parasites. Dogs get it from drinking stagnant water. It’s pretty common in ponds and bodies of water like that. Giardia and coccidia can also be transmitted from dirty water bowls. They can get it from stepping in feces and then stepping into their water bowl.” Christyn Malone, a registered nurse from East Setauket, spoke about her experience adopting “Jax” at Friends of Freddie. “Jacqueline, the vet tech, cleared him to go home with us, right in front of me.  She checked all the appropriate boxes saying his lungs were clear and his respirations were normal,” said Malone. When Malone took Jax home, she noticed something off about his breathing. “My husband took him to the vet the very next morning after we got him. The vet diagnosed him with severe pneumonia and parasites, saying he probably had kennel cough weeks ago, but was never treated properly,” Malone explained. After spending more time at the hospital than he did at home, Jax’s constant seizures couldn’t be controlled. Jax had to be euthanized. It was later that day, Jax’s blood work confirmed he was positive for distemper. “It is criminal that these people are allowed to adopt out these dogs knowing they are as sick as they are,” Malone adds, “They are killing animals and breaking families’ hearts.” Brookhaven Town Supervisor, Ed Romaine, stated, “I shut down Friends of Freddie a year ago due to code violations. I know we closed this facility down once before for lack of a Certificate of Occupancy and other related code issues.” Brookhaven’s citizens advocate, Kevin Molloy added, “As far as animal welfare goes, anytime you’re going to be doing anything with animals, it comes under state law, New York State Agra-Markets [Agriculture and Markets] law. I would check with local state legislature because you’re talking about a lemon law, and I would speak to Suffolk County Department of Consumer Affairs.” Rob Calarco, Suffolk County's 7th district legislator, states; “Certainly, we do not want illegitimate operators maltreating these animals and preying on folks who want to do the right thing and adopt a dog. Suffolk recently adopted some regulations as they apply to pet rescues to try to address those kinds of issues. We will refer the matter to our Consumer Affairs to see if any of our pet store and pet shelter regulations could be used to help investigate and shut down this operation.” Currently, pet shelters and similar non-profits, such as rescue organizations, are exempt from the New York Pet Lemon Law. Consumer Affairs defines a pet dealer to be anyone who sells more than nine dogs to the public for a profit in one year. The laws regarding pet rescue regulations are set to change on May 22, 2017. On April 14, 2017, Brookhaven Town fire marshal condemned the building that Friends of Freddie is located in. According to Ed Romaine, “A number of violations were noted. Also, the space was lacking a Certificate of Occupancy. The facility was closed to the public but to avoid chaos, the dogs were allowed to remain until other arrangements can be made. The town has no authority to enforce animal welfare laws. Also, Friends of Freddie can work to clear up these violations.” Caitlin Minieri, a volunteer for Friends of Freddie, stated that the rescue does not turn away dogs. “We get them from kill shelters and we basically get the question: which ones do you want to live? How do you answer that? So as long as we have the room, we’ll take them,” explained Minieri. In a statement made on April 15, 2017, Minieri said, “We probably have about 80 adult dogs right now.” Minieri added, “We get them here and we quarantine them and we hold them, but there’s only so long we can hold them for. We’re a handful of volunteers.” Barbara Sanelli, founder of Friends of Freddie Animal Rescue, offered an explanation as to how this may have happened. Sanelli stated, “Unfortunately dogs from the south came up that must have been harboring a disease. We had the dogs for many weeks and then adopted them out. Unfortunately, the disease broke after they went home, probably because of the new environment. It’s a stressful environment, their immune system lowered and they got diseases. It manifested. Do we like that? Absolutely not.” Dori Scofield, President of Save-A-Pet in Port Jefferson Station, makes this statement; “I decided we needed legislation to regulate animal rescue. I never thought I would have to have legislation regulate common sense, honestly.” Scofield and her team took the initiative to contact Suffolk County legislators to include rescues and non-profit organizations in the animal welfare laws. “We got a really good piece of legislation that was passed in Suffolk County, I’m really proud of it. So now, all of us, myself included, if we bring in dogs from out of state, they have to be quarantined, they have to have a certain amount of space, they have to have a certain amount of exercise, they have to be vaccinated, stool checked and microchipped. So all of the 501c3’s in Suffolk County, hopefully have received an application for a permit to have a rescue, and they will have to comply with all of these simple regulations,” Scofield stated. Save-A-Pet was founded in 1994 and is a no-kill animal shelter. Scofield explained how she has been able to successfully run this non-profit organization for 23 years; “You can’t overcrowd. Overcrowding breeds disease. We can’t all cram our shelters just because we can’t say no. You can only take in what you can care for properly, and if you can’t care for them properly, you’re doing a great injustice to the ones you already have.” The victims have sought legal help to close down Friends of Freddie for good. The Attorney General is conducting an investigation to handle the consumer fraud element of this rescues operations. After meeting with the Attorney General, Stein explained; “The end goal of the investigation is to permanently put a stop to Barbara for good once she is found guilty.” Addiss, Harsch and Malone are among many victims involved in a class action lawsuit filed against Friends of Freddie, by Miller Place attorney Vesselin Mitev. “Over 60 other people have contacted my firm and come forward and said that they were in a similar situation, so I decided that a class action was the way to go,” explained Mitev. Harsch makes it clear why he feels so strongly about exposing Sanelli, stating; “This place has got to be shut down for good, or at the very least until they can conduct themselves in a manner that is nothing but beneficial to these animals. After all, they have no voice, no choice, and are completely at her mercy.” Stein and other victims also plan to seek the District Attorney’s help to ensure Friends of Freddie doesn’t open up a new location. Local rescues, such as Almost Home in Bohemia, Save-A-Pet in Port Jefferson Station, and Happy Tails in Smithtown, have stepped up to take in some of Friends of Freddie’s dogs after the recent condemning of the building. Multiple dogs remain, as Sanelli hopes to find them their forever home, instead of continuing their life in another shelter.

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New Yorkers can expect to see a small increase in their electric bills, starting in the month of April. Governor Cuomo announced the approval of the New York Clean Energy Standard, a new mandate intended to fight climate change and rely on renewable energy. With the goal of keeping costs and air pollution down, the Clean Energy Standard is designed to progress toward a future that will require 50 percent of New York’s energy to come from wind and solar by 2030. This mandate will add an estimated $2 a month to the average energy customer’s bill. According to the New York State Energy & Research Development website, clean energy is an ambitious goal that is well within reach. With the ‘50 by 30’ plan, New York expects to use 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, but what does that mean for the other 50 percent, and the energy used in the meantime?

The “Zero-Emissions Credit” began on April 1, forcing ratepayers to subsidize failing nuclear power plants across New York State. Since Fitzpatrick, Ginna, and Nine Mile Point are among the oldest nuclear power plants in the United States, the cost of operation continues to rise. According to an article published on the New York Governor’s website, the New York Power Authority and Long Island Power Authority are introducing fees to maintain the operations of financially struggling nuclear power plants. The article states, “A growing number of climate scientists have warned that if these nuclear plants were to abruptly close, carbon emissions in New York will increase by more than 31 million metric tons during the next two years, resulting in public health and other societal costs of at least $1.4 billion.” Providing very little scientific evidence to back up that claim, a new organization emerged in opposition of this supposed nuclear bailout. Is keeping nuclear open really the most economically and environmentally efficient option in the transition to 50 by 30?

On November 8, 2016, two Stanford engineers, Felix Cebulla and Mark Z. Jacobson, conducted an alternative renewable energy study. This report compares alternative renewable resource scenarios to the proposed subsidy that nuclear needs. It was found that renewable alternatives don’t necessarily mean more expensive alternatives. Scenario 1 and 2 appear to be the most expensive, with a proposition to keep nuclear open until 2050 or 2028, and then switching to solar and wind energy. Scenario 3 offers the possibility of closing nuclear as soon as possible (2020 the earliest) and replacing it with onshore wind. Scenario 4 is similar to 3, but offers utility scale solar panels in addition to wind energy. Bryan Irrgang, manager of electric load forecasting for PSEG Long Island, weighs in on this study, claiming “their annuitized CAPEX (capital expenditures) costs for 7.5 GW of onshore wind under scenario 3 appears to be competitive with the OPEX (operating expenditures) costs and subsidies for 2.1 GW of nuclear capacity and thus represents a plausible alternative.”

The Stop Cuomo Tax organization claims the following; “The Governor says it’s about preserving jobs and fighting climate change, but we know better. New York’s energy future lies with energy efficiency, smarter grids, solar and wind. These approaches cost less, provide more jobs, and result in healthier communities.” A question that racks the minds of those in opposition is, where is the evidence that nuclear needs funding for the next 13 years? The issue at hand is climate change, which Governor Cuomo plans to combat immediately. If New York suddenly stopped nuclear all together, it would rely on fossil fuel which would continue to emit CO2. What needs to be considered is how Long Island is currently getting it’s power. Irrgang states, “About half is generated here on Long Island using natural gas. The other half is imported, which could be nuclear. There’s purchased power which could be hydro, which is good- that’s the best. Or it could be renewable. But it could also be coal plants in New Jersey.” With the goal of energy independence in mind, Irrgang adds, “Hillary Clinton said during her campaign, that long term, natural gas is not the solution to the problem, but as a transition, maybe for a decade it is, and we need to do that.” Although renewable energy is idealistic, high costs are delaying New York’s approach to reach 100 percent renewables sooner. “It’s all interrelated because energy permeates the entire economy. We do have to be careful with what we choose. I mean with enough money available, it’s doable. But it seems like a very abrupt approach,” states Irrgang.

It is estimated that this surcharge intended to bail out nuclear will cost New York residents $7.6 billion dollars, to subsidize outdated infrastructure that doesn’t benefit New York City. Elisa Cheng, a Queens resident and anti-nuclear activist writes, “It’s even more one-sided when you consider the fact that the vast majority of New Yorkers aren’t even getting their power from these old nuclear plants. Customers with Con Edison, which powers parts of New York City and Westchester, alone will pay $700 million. So we’re basically paying for something we’ll never use.” It is difficult to justify the decision to maintain failing nuclear power plants, when the billion’s of dollars New Yorkers will be paying are only intended to bail out old technology, and not to help offset high costs of new, renewable technology. When the zero emissions credit reaches an end in 2030, New York residents will have spent billions buying time for nuclear plants to operate a little longer.