Suffolk County resident Peter Miller, age 57, of Melville, kept his male bull terrier “Buster” in a cage with "deplorable" conditions without taking the animal out of the cage or cleaning it at all for 10 days, according to an announcement by the Suffolk County Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals from Friday, Dec. 30.
The cage that Buster was kept in was found to have a "putrid smell of rotting food, ammonia and urine," in addition to a urine-soaked blanket and moldy food, officials said.
After a veterinarian examined Buster, he was found to have suffered discomfort from large areas of matted fur on his body that had been caked with excrement, urine scalding, and redness and irritation on his paws.
He also had redness on his legs, belly, and hind area, inflammation and bleeding between his toes, bruises, scrapes inside his mouth, matted fur in his ear canal, a chewed-up tail, and eye pus.
Miller is charged with two counts of animal cruelty and neglect, and is scheduled to appear in First District Court in Central Islip on Monday, Jan. 16.
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