TOWN OF MONTGOMERY – It
is believed to be one of the worst mass mistreatment of animals in Orange
County. The Humane Enforcement Division of the Hudson Valley SPCA Saturday
led the rescue of 200 animals from a farm in the Town of Montgomery.
Animals are rescued at Montgomery farm
(Photos: Jim Lennon)
Susie Coston, national shelter director of Farm Sanctuary of Watkins
Glen, was on the scene and said the animals were in very poor health.
“You have a very high parasite count so you have a lot of emaciated,
anemic animals. We had some collapse even while trying to catch them.
They are all way underweight. I don’t understand how this is being
used for food because these animals are really, really thin,” she
said. “The cattle have pink eye so you have conjunctivitis spreading
through the cattle. We have some pigs in a really just deplorable barn
with no ventilation.”
The investigation into the situation began when Gene Hecht, the chief
enforcement officer of the Humane Division of the Hudson Valley SPCA,
received a call of a dead sheep.
“There were dead animals in a field rotting away,” he said.
“There was no food or water” for the live animals, which Hecht
said were apparently being slaughtered for food.
