Dog and seven puppies rescued by 104th Precinct
By Jessica Meditz
jmeditz@queensledger.com
A dog and her seven puppies were rescued by police during a car stop.
Last Saturday, officers from the 104th Precinct rescued an adult great dane and her seven puppies during a car stop on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park.
At around 4 p.m., Officers Kristen Candelaria and Stephen Sheehan of the 104 conducted a car stop after they observed 27-year-old Ravon Service of Philadelphia operating a vehicle with a loud exhaust southbound.
Officers Stephen Sheehan and Kristen Candelaria .
During the stop, the officers observed an emaciated female dog and her seven puppies inside the vehicle in a confined plastic container with no access to food, water or adequate space.
The dogs were transported to an animal hospital to receive treatment.
The adult great dane is so malnourished, her ribs are poking out.
Seven puppies were rescued along with their mother from known animal abuser Ravon Service.
Service was arrested and charged with eight counts of torture/injure/not feed animal, eight counts of neglect of impounded animal, seven counts of animal carried in cruel manner and unreasonable noise.
“Our Neighborhood Coordination Officers, Officer Kristen Candelaria and Officer Stephen Sheehan, did an outstanding job. They were out patrolling their sector, their neighborhood and addressing quality of life conditions when they found these poor puppies and their mother during a vehicle stop. The visible conditions of the dogs were immediate indicators that they were victims of a depraved indifference to animal life,” said Deputy Inspector Kevin Coleman, Commanding Officer of the 104th Precinct.
“Candelaria and Sheehan are indeed heroes — their proactive policing of the neighborhood ultimately led to the rescue of these defenseless puppies and their mother,” he continued. “We encourage all New Yorkers to report animal cruelty to 311, and active crimes in progress to 911.”
Councilman Robert Holden took to Twitter to applaud the officers on a job well done, and advocated for finding loving homes for the animals.
Shortly after his first tweet, Holden posted again that Service appears to be the same individual who was caught last year for abusing animals and assaulting a landlord, the New York Post reported.
“Throw the book at this individual,” Holden wrote Sunday. “People like this should never see the light of day, yet we release them back to the public to continue their crimes.”
