Police

SPCA: Kittens found with throats slashed downtown

PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | The scene where four kittens were found mutilated in Riverhead Tuesday.
PAUL SQUIRE PHOTO | The scene where four kittens were found mutilated in Riverhead Tuesday.

The Suffolk County SPCA is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever slashed the throats of four kittens and threw them over a fence behind an East Main Street business earlier this week.

According to Chief Roy Gross, the kittens – estimated to be about three weeks old – were found behind Riverhead Brake Service on Tuesday morning when an employee came into work and found them on the ground, at first thinking the small animals were rags behind a truck located on site.

Gross said the kittens – only one of whom was old enough to open its eyes – were put there between 5 p.m., when the business closed the night before, and 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Whoever is responsible faces a felony charge of animal cruelty, which carries up to two years in jail for each animal killed.

Gross called the culprit – or culprits – a “danger to society.”

“This never ends unfortunately,” he said. “Obviously this is very disturbing.”

The chief stressed the importance of spaying and neutering animals, to reduce a stressful domestic animal population.

Any tips given to the Suffolk SPCA will be kept confidential.