by John Di Leonardo | Dec 10, 2025 | Media Exposé, Rescue
Humane Long Island has taken in Honey, a dog rescued from the “forgotten dogs room” at Sportsman’s Kennels — the Long Island puppy mill exposed in a breaking Humane World for Animals undercover investigation for confining sick dogs in filthy, cramped cages, and...
by John Di Leonardo | Nov 20, 2025 | Victories
After a year-long campaign led by Humane Long Island, the Brookhaven Town Board has voted unanimously — 7–0 — to shut down the Holtsville Ecology Site and Animal Preserve, a roadside zoo operated by the Town Highway Department atop an uncapped landfill. This...
by John Di Leonardo | Nov 13, 2025 | Arrests, Victories
Carlos Lauro of Riverhead—who last year pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a German Shepherd, receiving a one-year jail and a 20-year ban on owning or possessing animals—has been arrested once more on new charges of animal cruelty and contempt of court. The arrest...
by John Di Leonardo | Sep 30, 2025 | Arrests, Victories
Following a complaint filed by Humane Long Island, authorities removed 206 animals from the Northport home of a rogue wildlife rehabilitator. According to law-enforcement officials, Samantha Boyd, 57, has been charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty and...
by John Di Leonardo | Sep 29, 2025 | Victories
After a year-long campaign led by Humane Long Island, the Town of Brookhaven has announced that the Holtsville Ecology Site and Animal Preserve — a roadside zoo operated by the Town Highway Department atop an old landfill — will be permanently closed. All animals will...
by John Di Leonardo | Jun 24, 2025 | Arrests, Victories
A Bay Shore woman is accused of confining birds in poor outdoor conditions without clean water during extreme temperatures, according to the Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Detectives with the Suffolk County SPCA responded with the...
by John Di Leonardo | May 7, 2025 | Media Exposé
“It’s imperative for the prosecutors in New York City to prosecute animal abuse — whether it’s dogs, cats or pigeons,” anthrozoologist John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, told amny.
by John Di Leonardo | May 1, 2025 | Media Exposé
“New Yorkers don’t go to work with the intention of spending our hard-earned money on a multimillion-dollar enterprise that kills a million 6-week-old ducklings a year while they’re still peeping,” said John Di Leonardo, executive director of animal rights group...
by John Di Leonardo | Feb 14, 2025 | Arrests, Victories
Sanctuaries are expected to care for animals rescued from dire situations, providing them with adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care, but at Double D Bar Ranch animals rocked back and forth psychotically and lived amongst piles of feces and corpses of their...
by John Di Leonardo | Feb 2, 2025 | Victories
Following our campaign to shutter the Holtsville Ecology Site and calls for Brookhaven to stop exploiting “Holtsville Hal” for Groundhog Day, Brookhaven canceled its live event and posted a virtual poem online instead. “’Humane Long Island is...
by John Di Leonardo | Dec 29, 2024 | Media Exposé
Some lawmakers hope to end a program that is meant to introduce children to field sports but that critics say makes the birds easy targets, if they don’t die another way. Read our exposé of the DEC’s canned pheasant hunting program in The New York...
by John Di Leonardo | Dec 24, 2024 | Media Exposé
Our campaign to save the animals suffering at Town of Brookhaven’s Holtsville Ecology Site is on the cover of Newsday the second day in a row!
by John Di Leonardo | Dec 23, 2024 | Media Exposé
A Newsday investigation reveals conversations with seven former Holtsville Ecology Site & Animal Preserve employees describing “abysmal” enclosures, unlicensed medical procedures, and extreme neglect at the taxpayer-funded facility where Honey — a...
by John Di Leonardo | Sep 9, 2024 | Media Exposé
John Di Leonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, an animal advocacy group, and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, sometimes rescues abandoned or escaped birds, or receives them from markets as a good-will gesture. “Every single bird we get is deathly ill,...
by John Di Leonardo | Aug 16, 2024 | Arrests
Following a Humane Long Island protest demanding jail-time, a Hempstead man convicted of fatally kicking a 4-pound Yorkie during an argument with the dog’s owners will spend 2 weeks behind bars but avoid a felony conviction, a judge ordered at a Thursday sentencing. A...
by John Di Leonardo | Jul 22, 2024 | Victories
After a horse was paraded into Horse & Hound pub on Islip’s Main Street for a social media promotion this past weekend, HumaneLI identified three apparent violations of Islip Town Code, Suffolk County Health Sanitary Code, and New York State Law, alerting...
by John Di Leonardo | Jul 9, 2024 | Media Exposé
The New York Times published a cover story about activists sounding the alarm about the harmful effects of Sloth Encounters, featuring our victory shutting down Sloth Encounters in Hauppauge. Days later, it published a letter to the editor by Humane Long Island...
by John Di Leonardo | Jun 27, 2024 | Victories
by John Di Leonardo | Jun 24, 2024 | Media Exposé
Humane Long Island is featured in a Newsday investigation revealing rising deaths and mass injuries at the home of the Belmont Stakes. “’New York needs to let this cruel industry either stand on its own or die, like the more than 30 horses who were killed at...
by John Di Leonardo | May 25, 2024 | Victories
by John Di Leonardo | May 9, 2024 | Victories
As Sloth Encounters’ owner Larry Wallach’s USDA exhibitor license nears its expiration date on June 14th, 2024, the USDA has just released an ‘Official Warning’ to Sloth Encounters’ owner Larry Wallach, warning him that “if APHIS...
by John Di Leonardo | Apr 1, 2024 | Victories
Following the Easter holiday, Humane Long Island traded a vegan Easter basket for the lives of a Khaki Campbell duck, a Muscovy duck, and an Silkie chicken at a New York City live slaughter market. The ducks had the ends of the beaks and toes cut off and the Silkie...
by John Di Leonardo | Apr 1, 2024 | Victories
by John Di Leonardo | Mar 15, 2024 | Victories
Following a Humane Long Island investigation that documented hundreds of violations by dozens of vendors exhibiting and selling constrictor snakes such as pythons and boa constrictors, iguanas, tarantulas and scorpions, among other animals at the Long Island Reptile...
by John Di Leonardo | Mar 7, 2024 | Victories
by John Di Leonardo | Feb 2, 2024 | Victories
Village of Babylon Mayor Mary Adams kicked off Long Island’s 1st annual animal-free Groundhog Day celebration this morning with the unveiling of “Babylon Belle”, a human-sized “Groundhog” complete with bows in her hair and a tutu,...
by John Di Leonardo | Jan 31, 2024 | Victories
After Humane Long Island learned that the Port Jefferson Business Improvement District (BID) planned to hire a New York City horse-drawn carriage operator to force horses to haul passengers at its Port Jeff Ice Festival, we teamed up with our friends at NYCLASS...
by John Di Leonardo | Jan 23, 2024 | Arrests, Victories
Following a complaint by Humane Long Island, the Nassau County SPCA led a multi-agency investigation of a North Bellmore man who had hoarded 100 animals inside his basement and backyard. Federal, state, and local authorities issued the man 30 violations relating to...
by John Di Leonardo | Jan 18, 2024 | Arrests, Victories
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that Carlos Lauro, 76, of Riverhead, pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a German Shepherd with a rifle and was sentenced to one year in jail and a 20-year ban on owning or possessing animals. “Our...
by John Di Leonardo | Jan 14, 2024 | Media Exposé
The feathered remains of pheasants were strewn along a stretch of Sunrise Highway about a half mile from the edge of Otis Pike Preserve in Manorville earlier this month. Every 15 or 20 feet a disembodied wing, leg, striped tail feathers, coppery chest feathers and...
by John Di Leonardo | Dec 15, 2023 | Victories
After Humane Long Island observed exotic pet store Creepy Creatures advertising a raffle that offered live snakes, geckos, tarantulas, and other animals as prizes, we contacted our colleagues at the Nassau County SPCA who visited the Farmingdale business. Creepy...
by John Di Leonardo | Oct 24, 2023 | Victories
After hearing from Humane Long Island that snakes and tarantulas are illegal to sell or possess in Islip, Petco Bay Shore promptly removed these animals from its shelves and pledged never to sell them again in the...
by John Di Leonardo | Oct 19, 2023 | Victories
After hearing from Humane Long Island that Sloth Encounters owner Larry Wallach was frequenting a Starbucks in Rockville Centre with baby sloths, the Nassau County Department of Health issued the store a written warning for allowing Wallach to bring a sloth into its...
by John Di Leonardo | Oct 1, 2023 | Victories
After Humane Long Island discovered that constrictor snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas were being exhibited and sold at the Long Island Reptile Expo at Suffolk Community College’s Brentwood Campus in violation of Islip town code, the Long Island Reptile Expo...
by John Di Leonardo | Sep 19, 2023 | Victories
After a decade of protesting outside UniverSoul Circus in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, we can finally hang up our costumes! The circus has gone animal-free! Thank you to our friends at PETA and everyone who joined us over the years! As a guardianship lawyer, my...
by John Di Leonardo | Aug 18, 2023 | Victories
After an individual was spotted exhibiting a baby wallaby in Washington Square Park and on a subway earlier this month, Humane Long Island contacted the NYPD Animal Cruelty Investigations Squad, launched an investigation, and set up patrols at the park and on Coney...
by John Di Leonardo | Aug 15, 2023 | Victories
Following numerous complaints from Humane Long Island, Sloth Encounters owner Larry Wallach was yet again cited by USDA APHIS for violations of the Animal Welfare Act in August 2023 after failing to keep a written program of veterinary care for kangaroos, capybaras, a...
by John Di Leonardo | Jul 26, 2023 | Victories
Sloth Encounters owner Larry Wallach has pled guilty to illegal possession with intent to sell Nile monitors, venomous reptiles who grow up to 7ft long. The district attorney’s office sought incarceration, however, the Honorable Judge Jonathan Bloom sentenced...
by John Di Leonardo | Jul 24, 2023 | Victories
Thanks to the bipartisan efforts of Legislators Trish Bergin and Jason Richberg, Suffolk County has adopted IR 1777, a local law to restrict the use of exotic animals in traveling performances. This important bill not only protects the welfare of animals and the...
by John Di Leonardo | Jul 16, 2023 | Victories
An April 12, 2023 USDA APHIS inspection report—which was just released to the public—reports that Sloth Encounters’ owner Larry Wallach was recently cited for mishandling animals after a USDA inspector observed a Sloth Encounters’ employee improperly...
by John Di Leonardo | Jul 11, 2023 | Victories
On July 11, 2023, the Suffolk County Supreme Court found Sloth Encounters and its landlord 777 Chris’s Way, LLC guilty of civil contempt of court, writing: It is the opinion of this Court that the location continues to be operated as a petting zoo under the...
by John Di Leonardo | Jun 7, 2023 | Victories
When Hopscotch Montessori School’s hatching project vendor informed the school that they would no longer be taking back babies when the science experiment was completed, educators scrambled for a backup plan, however, these plans fell through after 4 ducklings...
by John Di Leonardo | May 4, 2023 | Victories
After hearing from Humane Long Island and its international Duck Defenders program, St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School has pledged to end its 40-year tradition of hatching baby ducklings in classrooms! The last eleven ducklings hatched last week are being cared...
by John Di Leonardo | Apr 5, 2023 | Victories
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney has charged multiple Suffolk County businesses with misdemeanors for selling day-old baby chicks in quantities less than allowable by New York State law. “Each spring around Easter time, people purchase newly born...
by John Di Leonardo | Apr 3, 2023 | Victories
Senator Monica R. Martinez introduced bill S6211 which establishes a definition for exotic animals and expands the existing definition of wild animals. The bill further prohibits exotic animals from being harbored, traded, imported, sold or owned as pets in the same...
by John Di Leonardo | Mar 30, 2023 | Victories
Supreme Court Justice Joseph A. Santorelli has granted Islip a Preliminary Injunction against Sloth Encounters and its landlord 777 Chris’s Way, LCC ordering the defendants to “immediately cease any operations that are a violation of the Town of Islip...
by John Di Leonardo | Mar 26, 2023 | Victories
After hearing from Humane Long Island, the Patchogue-Medford Library has pledged that today will be the last time former Iditarod musher Karen Land will speak at the library and has apologized for promoting the Iditarod in materials ahead of her visit. Ms. Land will...
by John Di Leonardo | Mar 9, 2023 | Victories
After hearing how Sloth Encounters’ owner Larry Wallach has been cited for more than 50 federal violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including for lying to USDA inspectors about an incident involving the bite of a child at his illegal Hauppauge facility, the...
by John Di Leonardo | Jan 27, 2023 | Victories
After Humane Long Island informed Best Western Hotels & Resorts that Sloth Encounters’ owner Larry Wallach was hiding baby sloths from federal authorities inside the Best Western Mill River Manor in Rockville Centre, the brand labeled Wallach’s actions...
by John Di Leonardo | Jan 1, 2023 | Victories
After veterinarian Greg Nelson witnessed contractors with the Town of Hempstead removing Monk parakeet, also known as Quacker parrot, nests from light posts at Merrick Road Park and removing the current light system that provided both a platform for nest-building and...
