363 Derby Road
Middletown, NY, 10940

(845) 386-9738
– Dog Team: Ext. 2
– Cat Team:  Ext. 3

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Daily: 10 am – 4 pm (EST)

info@petsalive.org

There is a lot of confusion about the Town of Wallkill rottweilers. The media outlets recently covered the story. We want to explain the role that Pets Alive has had and not take credit for anything we have NOT been involved in. There are so many different stories out there and so many misquotes it is getting difficult to see what is factual.
We heard about this situation the first week of March. That is when the complaint was made and the police moved in to assess the situation. After going on the property, they must have seen that they had to pursue much more serious legal action against Sylvia Pinneta and at that time they were authorized to remove only dogs that were in absolute CRITICAL states of needing medical attention, after giving Sylvia the opportunity to do so. From what I understand she was asked to seek medical attention for the dogs that the police department felt needed it most and I believe that perhaps she refused, and as a result they were able to then confiscate those dogs. (again, all of this is between her and the police and I can not speak to what happened, so please understand that I have no knowledge of the legalities involved in this situation).
Those dogs, who we named Josh and Kelli were brought to Pets Alive. Josh had such a badly mangled leg that had been untreated for so long that he was in agony every time he moved, severely malnourished, and very tiny, (most likely a result of having so little care and being in so much pain for so long). We rushed him to Dr. Furman who immediately had to amputate his leg. Josh had a very difficult recovery, but he is now well on his way to moving about comfortably.
Kelli had what appeared to be two broken toes. Again, they appeared to be old injuries where no medical attention had been sought and they had healed facing UPWARD. She limped very badly on them and was also clearly uncomfortable. There was nothing to do for her but to amputate half her foot to remove those toes. Kelli is doing well and is able to run around now. She is now being fostered with a wonderful family who will formally adopt her once this process is over.
The town gathered all their information and got all their ducks into a row and then this week they were finally able to arrest Sylvia on animal cruelty and other charges. Pets Alive has offered to take every single dog from the home, ONCE THE TOWN HAS OWNERSHIP OF THEM.
We can not get into a situation where we take the dogs and board them here and care for them (there are almost 80 of them) while the town goes through Sylvia’s due process, which could take months, or unfortunately even YEARS. Once they do have ownership though, we have stepped up to offer our services and we will work closely with other organizations to make sure all the rotties are properly vetted, cared for and adopted.
So the rotties are NOT here yet. We have a few of them that were in severe medical crisis – Josh and Kelli – and now we took in Eileen – another severely injured (or malformed) dog that needs some serious surgery or additional help. All the puppies were taken out of there (to Middletown Humane) and all the late term, very pregnant females were taken and put into foster by Mountain Rottie Rescue.
NONE OF THE DOGS ARE AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION YET!
Please do not come here or to Middletown Humane and ask to see them or adopt them. Unfortunately the dogs still “technically” all belong to Sylvia. So until a judge orders their seizure, none of them can be shown or adopted.
However if you ARE interested in adoption, then we would love for you to PRE fill out an adoption application. This way once the dogs do come here, and get vetted, we can immediately have you come down and get first pick of a dog that you might be interested in possibly adopting or fostering!
So I hope that clears up our role. We don’t really HAVE any official role in this. We can’t really ACT or do anything until the police have actual custody of the dogs. We HAVE gone up a few times to assess the situation and help in a minor way but we do plan (and expect) that eventually ALL the dogs will be here where they can be taken care of properly and moved into other rescues and into homes!
We thank ALL of you that are stepping up to help and to volunteer time and services but at this time we only have three of the dogs, and they are not available for adoption yet. There is also nothing else that can be done to help the dogs, until the town has seized full custody.
We will keep you all updated!
And hey…while these pictures are sad…you can also be happy that the police thought enough to come to us and trusted us enough to care for these guys, because –

LOOK AT KELLI NOW!

You can tell by that grin that she knows she is going to be ok now!

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