Animal Cruelty

Animal-cruelty charges were dropped yesterday against a former Moorestown police officer accused of bestiality. Robert Melia Jr., 39, still faces charges of sexually assaulting three girls between 2000 and 2008. Prosecutors say he molested the children with former girlfriend Heather Lewis, 33, of Pemberton Township. State Superior Court Judge James J. Morley approved Melia's motion yesterday to strike the animal-cruelty charges from the indictment. Authorities claimed to have videos of Melia engaging in sex acts with cows.

In the third such incident in less than a week, Philadelphia youths were arrested yesterday on charges of cruelty to animals involving dog fighting, police said. Three youths were arrested about 1:30 p.m. at a vacant house in the 2600 block of Seltzer Street in North Philadelphia, according to police, who said they found five pit bull terriers - two of them dead and the three others with numerous wounds - at the address. The names of the three youths were withheld because of they are juveniles.

Leah Whitesell knows what to do about two men suspected in a pit-bull fighting operation, but what to do with the dogs she rescued is a tougher case to crack. Whitesell, the animal-control officer for the Atlantic County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said yesterday she intends to charge Eric Bell of the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia and Michael Amaro of Clifton, N.J., with 22 counts each of animal cruelty, probably by the end of the week. Whitesell found about 35 dogs last week, hungry, dehydrated and beat up, at a property in Mullica Township, a remote section of Atlantic County that authorities believe was used for illegal pit-bull fighting.

Chuck McDevitt took the job of public relations manager of the Chester County SPCA last year because he wanted to help people understand the responsibility of pet ownership. But lately, he's been working closely with local police departments, taking part in the investigation of three chilling animal cruelty cases. In April, three pygmy goats were found mutilated in East Bradford, a short distance from Strodes Mill Gallery Inc. In October, one pit bull was found dead and another was found starving in the 300 block of South Adams Street in West Chester.

Inside the house, a bloodstained fighting pit lay unassembled on the floor. In the basement was an "isolation" room for pre-fight training. There were treadmills, scales, drugs and detailed training and performance reports. Outside, each one chained to a round concrete slab, were 11 pit bull terriers, most with scars on their heads and bodies. Cages containing 40 fighting cocks were scattered in the 10 acres of woods. Several dead roosters were also found. Police and animal-cruelty agents in Bucks County say that was the scene Saturday night during a raid at the home of Edward M. Stevenson, who is suspected of running illegal cock and dog fights at his house on Farm School Lane in Bedminster Township.

MOST OF Virginia Wetzel's Port Richmond neighbors never saw her bring home a dog or a cat. But they could hear constant barking from her house on Monmouth Street near Belgrade all day long, block residents said. And none of them - absolutely none - was safe from the odor of urine and feces that permeated the air, and their homes. "My son can't open his windows because of the smell," said Mary Beth Sgrillo, 40, whose home faces one side of Wetzel's property. She was one of many neighbors who said they had run-ins with Wetzel over the years.

The man who hurts animals is often well on his way to hurting his children, his wife and strangers, a study predicts. And that is why law-enforcement officials need to treat animal-cruelty cases more seriously, says the Humane Society of the United States. "The guy who burns the neighbor's cat is not otherwise a normal member of society," said Carter Luke, vice president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "These are dangerous people for whom violence and physical abuse are often a way of life.

IN LIFE, people always want to keep up with the Joneses. But not James Jones, who allegedly stabbed his dog to death with a 30-inch samurai sword (July 16). The mere mental image is enough to give a child nightmares for years. I realize that this will be labeled nothing more than animal cruelty, and will draw a fine and perhaps some jail time. Funny, but I thought the definition of murder was when you killed something. If it were a child he did this to, he'd be looking at the needle.

A South Philadelphia woman from whom animal cruelty agents seized 88 Chihuahuas and Chihuahua mixes along with other animals two weeks ago was charged today with 134 counts of animal cruelty, the Pennsylvania SPCA announced. The brief announcement did not name the woman, who lives on Earp Street near 7th, but neighbors called her "Frannie. " Municipal Court records identified the woman as Frances Rotonta, 49. The Chihuahuas and other animals, along with two cats and the remains of two dead dogs, were found in a July 14 raid on the house, after, according to some neighbors, a year of complaints to various authorities.

HERCULES was barely a dog anymore, confined and forgotten in a Gloucester County basement like a box of dusty, old toys. Meanwhile, upstairs, Roxanne Notaro's chocolate Labrador, "Little," had food, warmth and love. Officials with the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals say it's a miracle that Hercules, an American bulldog, is alive after cops found him locked in a small crate and covered in feces, urine and fleas in the basement of Notaro's home on Vassar Road in Wenonah last week.

A Bucks County farmer with a felony conviction was sentenced Thursday to a minimum of nearly a year in the county prison for shooting his dog after it attacked the neighbors' pets. Gary Kirk of Newtown Township was sentenced to 111/2 to 23 months in the Bucks County prison. Kirk pleaded guilty in July to animal cruelty and a weapons offense that stemmed from his felony drug conviction 20 years ago. He avoided a possible five-year state prison sentence for unlawfully possessing a firearm.

Investigators from the Pennsylvania SPCA seeking the source of a rotten stench in a Kensington row home today found four turtles, a gecko, and a fairly large, black and blue fish. The animals were alive amid the filth in the home on Cornwall Street near Kensington Avenue, but when the investigators made their way into the back yard around noon, they realized why one person in the home had jumped out a back window and fled when they came in. Three dead dogs were decaying back there, spokeswoman Wendy Marano said, and investigators found an additional three dead puppies inside a trash bag. All the dead dogs were pitbull-types.

A Monmouth County man accused of running down a flock of seagulls in a mall parking lot has pleaded guilty to animal-cruelty charges. A judge in Eatontown, N.J., levied more than $750 in fines and fees against Jeffrey Karczewski of Hamilton. Victor "Buddy" Amato of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said witnesses saw the 22-year-old circle the gulls in the Monmouth Mall parking lot before laughing as he ran them over Oct. 18. One bird was killed and two others were never found.

LANCASTER - The second of two Amish people charged with animal cruelty for leaving their buggy horses tied up in a southeastern Pennsylvania parking lot on a hot day has been found guilty and fined $300. The cases involving Paul Smucker and Linda Byler, both of Lancaster, sparked an outcry about animal abuse in an area populated by many Amish. Smucker was fined after being found guilty last week by a district judge. Byler had previously been fined $300 after pleading guilty in September.

A 23-year-old Fairhill woman has been charged with animal cruelty in the abandonment of a horse in a lot in Kensington, the Pennsylvania SPCA said Friday. SPCA spokeswoman Wendy Marano said tipsters led investigators to Claritza Lopez-Fuentes of the 3000 block of North American Street. She was charged with animal cruelty for failing to provide veterinary care for the white horse, Marano said. The horse, malnourished and suffering a leg wound, was found Sunday in the lot on the 3500 block of Ella Street.

A 23-year-old North Philadelphia woman has been charged with animal cruelty in the abandonment of a horse in a lot in Kensington, the Pennsylvania SPCA said. Wendy Marano, spokeswoman for the animal welfare agency, said tipsters led investigators to Claritza Lopez-Fuentes. Lopez-Fuentes, of the 3000 block of North American Street in the Fairhill section, was charged with animal cruelty for failing to provide veterinary care for the white horse, Marano said. The horse, malnourished and suffering a leg wound, was found Sunday in the lot on the 3500 block of Ella Street, about a mile from Lopez-Fuentes' home.

In the Region Aqua Pa. seeks rate increase Aqua Pennsylvania Inc. , which has more than 400,000 water customers statewide, applied for a $38.6 million rate increase with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission . The company, the largest operating subsidiary of Bryn Mawr's Aqua America Inc. , said the rate increase would boost a typical monthly residential bill by $5.08 to $57.72, a 9.7 percent increase. Aqua president Karl Kyriss said the company invested $450 million in infrastructure, including upgrades to its distribution and treatment systems since its last rate request in 2009.

A dog that shelter workers called the victim of the worst cruelty they had ever seen is recovering at the Delaware County SPCA. It will be five to seven days before it is known if the pit bull-boxer mix, dubbed Curious George for his curious nature, will survive, said Justina Calgiano, spokesperson for the Media-based shelter. The dog weighs 35 pounds, half what it should, she said. His nails are overgrown, and he has sores on his backside, probably the result of sitting too long in one spot.