A tip led authorities to the family home on Tuesday, where the exotic animals were allegedly found packed in cages
A Long Island man allegedly hoarded 100 animals, some of which were exotic and even endangered, in his basement and backyard, according to investigators — who said he wasn’t shy about showing them off to make some quick cash.
As part of the stunning find in the North Bellmore home of 32-year-old Matthew Spohrer, the Nassau County SPCA confiscated a young South American ostrich, otherwise known as a rhea, named Eddie.
How did Eddie end up at the home? Ebay, apparently.
“He actually said that he ordered the rhea on Ebay as an egg when he was drunk. This was a stupid mistake,” said John Di Leonardo, an anthrozoologist and the executive director of Humane Long Island. “[Spohrer’s] been seen and photographed numerous times with this rhea in public, taking it to the fair, train stations, pet stores.”
This pisses me off like crazy. Animal abuse is an extreme hot button for me, so when I hear these stories of people deliberately abusing animals it really makes my blood boil.
The people who are selling these exotic animals should all be executed by firing squad. Or at least locked up for the remainder of their lives. The are criminal idiots with no ethics or morals.
And as for the assholes buying these creatures, what training did this fucking idiot have to care for these animals? What knowledge did they have about their dietary needs and habitat requirements? And what about medical care?
This is worse than raping kids and putting them in basement cells to torture. There is no more thoroughly disgusting and nightmarish crime than hoarding animals and buying and selling wild animals. This is absolutely the worst crime any human can commit.
Nah son
Yeah son. And I’m helping with the cause. We are going after these people and my money is helping them be prosecuted for these awful crimes.
You can be a molester and hater of animals, but I’m here to see that people like you don’t get away with it.
The positive thing about this incident though is where it happened and the resources available to those animals, like the North Shore Animal League, which usually does outstanding work with situations like this, and then there’s the Bronx Zoo, which may have a pretty troubled past, but leads a network of zoos and sanctuaries, so these animals will get taken care of most likely.
This idiot though should get the book thrown at him, and probably will.
I hope they really do throw a book and a brick at him and send him to prison for life, like that sick idiot they tried to make a documentary series out of, “the Lion king” or whatever the hell his stupid name was. He was an animal abuser and animal hater and he deserves to rot in prison for the things he’s done.