By Debbie Cohen
Carmine the Rottweiler is lucky to be alive. He was found last week neglected, starving and filthy in a Richmond Hill garage on 102nd Street near 82nd Road, with moldy food and no water, whimpering for help.
Volunteers from Bobbi and the Strays, a nonprofit Queens animal shelter, got tips from neighbors and Community Quisqueya Car Service in Richmond Hill that a black dog was being left in a garage by a man who comes occasionally to check on him.
Laura Miller, Bobbi and the Strays' shelter manager, knocked on the padlocked garage and tried to whistle to get the dog's attention. Finally, scratching and whining was heard on the other side. With no ventilation and temperatures soaring, there was only a tiny opening on the bottom of the garage door. Carmine's life was in jeopardy.
“We called the police, the ASPCA and everyone we could think of,” Miller said. “The police said it would be breaking and entering and they could not help. It was approaching midnight and we finally got in touch with the landlord, who gave us permission to get the dog out, and we did what we had to do to rescue the dying dog.”
According to the garage's landlord, the man has not paid rent for eight months and hardly came around. To date, he has not been located. Bobbi and the Strays volunteers Margaret Asencio and Bill and Rose Starrett said that when the garage was opened, it reeked of urine and feces piled up in the garage.
“It was deplorable and sad that anyone would do this to an animal,” the Starretts said. “There were three food dishes with white mold in them laying in the dark.”
Maria Thomson, the 102nd Precinct Community Council president, also came out to try to rescue Carmine. She said he was frightened and sad, but she was glad to assist in saving the dog's life.
“The man who did this should be fined and arrested, but we have not located him yet,” Thomson said. “When we opened the garage door, there was nothing in there. No electronics, nothing — just the dog with empty dishes. The dog was not even guarding anything. This is just a case of abuse.”
Before the garage door was opened, the shelter volunteers put small pieces of cheese through cracks at the bottom of the door and poured water through the cracks. When Carmine was finally rescued, he was so weak and malnourished that he had to be picked up and put in a car to be transported to John F. Kennedy International Airport's Vet Port, where Bobbi Giordano, Bobbi and the Strays' owner, has one of her shelters.
“When we rescued him, he came out slowly and we leashed him,” Giordano said. “He was panting and his fur was matted and he would have died in that hellhole if we did not get him out.”
According to Giordano, Carmine has been walking, eating and drinking water, but he recently took a turn for the worse and developed pneumonia. Carmine is now being treated at Richmond Hill's Lefferts Animal Hospital by Dr. Richard Valdes. The 71-pound dog is on intravenous fluids and seems to be recovering, but still has a mild breathing problem.
But Miller and the other volunteers are worried about the animals they rescue in the near future, because Giordano's lease expires at the Vet Port this Dec. 31.
“We need a new space quickly and we need donations, even if everyone sends $1 or $2 to Bobbi and the Strays, P.O. Box 170129, Ozone Park, N.Y. 11417,” Giordano said. “I want to continue saving the ones that cannot defend themselves.”
