Homeowner arrested, house on Long Island condemned as hundreds of rats found inside
Volunteers believe at least 300 rats are inside the Rocky Point home
ROCKY POINT, Long Island (WABC) -- An entire home on Long Island has been completely overrun by hundreds of rats that were kept as pets by a 48-year-old homeowner who is now under arrest, leaving animal rescue volunteers with the difficult task of capturing them and finding them care.
At least 300 rats are believed to be inside the home in Rocky Point. Volunteers say 100 to 200 alone are in the walls.
From spilling out of the kitchen cabinets to overrunning every inch of the floor, pet rats - hundreds of them - are running amok inside the home.
"It's a disaster inside," said Strong Island Animal Rescue President Frankie Floridia. "It's very hard to breathe. You need masks. You need gloves. It's just a bad situation."
Floridia and other volunteers with Strong Island Animal Rescue have been capturing as many rats as they can so they can send them to a vet to get proper care and checked out.
"A lot of them are injured. A lot of them have huge wounds," said veterinarian tech, Kristin Stephens. "Their eyes are coming out. They have big abscesses. We have a few that are going septic."
Stephens is a volunteer and a veterinarian tech assisting inside the now condemned home on Whitewood Drive.
"We got about 150 contained. We have them in separate containers, male, female, sick," Floridia said.
Stephens said there are at least another 100 or 200 in the walls.
The homeowner received sanitation violations after an estimated total of 300 to 500 domesticated rats were believed to be in the home.
"It's a very sad situation but we're doing the best we can with what we have," Floridia said.
A team of five to 10 volunteers found rat poison in the basement.
"We have seen a couple that have had blood coming from there nose which is what happens when you poison rats," Stephens said.
Stephens says all of the rats are being treated for mites. She says this could have been avoided through rat separation.
"Everybody knows rodents reproduce very quickly," she said. "I personally feel that if they were separated, if you keep the males with the males and the females with the females, none of this could have occurred."
"It makes us sad but it also gives us a glimmer of hope that we know that we can get them to safety," Floridia said.
Eyewitness News spoke with neighbors who say they didn't see or smell anything, so it was really contained to the home.
Volunteers are now looking for good Samaritans to offer foster care, and to give monetary donations for the rodents' healthcare.
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