Bruce Blakeman calls for greater animal protections after 155 neglected cats, dogs rescued from LI hoarders house of horrors
New York gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman called for greater animal safety protections after 155 neglected cats and dogs were rescued from a Long Island hoarder’s house of horrors.The Nassau County Executive, who is a longtime advocate for animal rights, issued a strong plea on Tuesday at the City of Glen Cove Animal Shelter alongside staffers there and the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA)Blakeman stressed “how important it is to make sure that animals are safe, that they’re cared for, and that they are not neglected or abused” at the press conference held after the arrest of a Glen Clove woman who kept over 150 animals in her home in deplorable conditions.“We had a recent situation whereby we had over 150 cats that were found in one person’s home.And then the person was breeding them for monetary reasons, allegedly,” the Republican governor hopeful said.“What we needed at that point was the ability to go in and try to help those cats and find a home for them,” Blakeman added.Two dogs were also among the animals rescued.
Animal activist and political commentator Rob Becerra doubled down on Blakeman’s statements and called for a statewide animal welfare department.“We need a Department of Animal Welfare here in the state of New York to oversee all animal-related issues in our state,” Becerra said at the press conference.“If we have that, we will be able to combat it much easier — the people who are doing illegal backyard breeding, who are hurting these dogs, who are beating these dogs and lighting dogs on fire, which was one of my cases in Queens.”“We have a moral and ethical obligation to do right by the most defenseless in our society,” he added.Becerra slammed Gov Kathy Hochul’s administration for being “indifferent” to animal cruelty and said he confronted the lieutenant governor last year at City Hall about a 29-year-old who beat a dog to death and lit the pup on fire.“I’ve s...