Riverhead Man Who Pleaded Guilty To Shooting Dog In Head Now Charged With Animal Cruelty — Again: DA
RIVERHEAD, NY — A Riverhead man has been arrested and charged with 12 counts of animal cruelty, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney — and it's not the first time.
According to the DA's Office, Carlos Lauro was also charged with contempt of court. In 2024, Lauro pleaded guilty to shooting a dog in the head with a rifle and was sentenced to one year in jail and a 20-year ban on owning or possessing animals, the DA said.
John DiLeonardo, executive director of Humane Long Island, said authorities confiscated "more than 50 animals from Lauro's property, previously identified as an unlicensed slaughterhouse and backyard breeding operation. Among the rescued animals were puppies in distress and underweight chickens suffering from mutilated beaks and frostbite."
Roosters and hens are now recovering under the care of Humane Long Island, he said.
A total of 31 chickens , seven puppies , and three adult dogs ere also brought to the League in Southold, Director of Operations Gabrielle Stroup said.
"People who abuse animals once are far more likely to do it again, and the well-documented link between animal cruelty and violence toward humans makes strong enforcement essential. That's why Suffolk County's new penalties for failing to register with the animal-abuse registry —and for violating its terms — are so critically important," DiLeonardo said.
In 2024, less than a week after Lauro, now 77,
The three bulls — now named Steve, Artie, and Robert — were found alongside 10 freezing piglets without access to food and water on a vacant property after rescuers accessed the property to remove a domestic goose who escaped Lauro's property, DiLeonardo said.
Next, DiLeonardo said he believed someone tried to steal the bulls by cutting a large hole in the fence to an adjoining preserve.
Humane Long Island located the bulls in time to corral them back to Lauro's property, where they were picked up and moved to a sanctuary, he said.
The 2024 investigation was launched on January 10 when a one-year-old German Shepherd was taken to the VCA Veterinary Hospital in Westbury and found to be paralyzed from a gunshot wound to the head, Tierney said.
According to a witness, the dog, named "Blitzkrieg," was reportedly found shot at about 5:30 p.m., laying in a pen on Lauro's property next to a dead goat, the DA said.
When detectives with the SCDA's biological, environmental, and animal safety team, or BEAST, arrived at Lauro's home, they learned that about one month before, Lauro had shot and killed another German Shepherd, a six-month old puppy named "Cranky," Tierney said.
Lauro shot Cranky in the back, and when another resident of the house took the dog back inside the home in an attempt to console and treat his wounds, Lauro dragged the dog back outside and shot Cranky in the head, killing her, the DA said.
At Lauro's home, BEAST detectives found five surviving Belgian Malinois/Dutch Shepherd mix dogs, a Border Collie, two German Shepherds, and numerous other animals, including a multitude of goats, pigs, cows, chickens, and geese, the DA said. Multiple other deceased farm animals, including a baby goat and pig, were found there, he added.
On January 11, 2024, BEAST detectives, with the assistance from the Riverhead Police Department, executed a search warrant against the premises and arrested Lauro, Tierney said.
On January 18, Lauro pleaded guilty before Riverhead Town Justice Lori Hulse, to the charge of unjustified killing of an animal, a misdemeanor, Tierney said. Lauro also pleaded guilty to third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, a misdemeanor, stemming from an unrelated case, the DA said.
As a condition of his plea, Lauro was sentenced to one year in jail, was issued a 20-year ban on owning or possessing animals, and all the surviving animals owned by Lauro were surrendered, Tierney said.
Lauro was represented by the Legal Aid Society of Suffolk County for both cases.
"Our biological, environmental, and animal safety team, the Suffolk County Police Department, and the Riverhead Police Department put together a solid case, and the defendant's only recourse was to plead guilty," said Tierney at the time. "This kind of cruelty will not be tolerated by my office, nor the people of Suffolk County, and the swift sentence of one year in jail demonstrates that. Let this serve as a warning to anyone seeking to injure animals."
Also rescued in 2024 were nearly 100 other animals, including piglets, goats, chickens, ducks, geese, a sheep, and a bunny, the DA said.
"Thanks to the swift action of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office and its biological, environmental, and animal safety team, animal abuser Carlos Lauro will spend the rest of 2024 in jail and won't be allowed to own another companion animal until he is nearly 100 years old," said DiLeonardo, also an anthrozoologist, at the time.
