MAHOPAC, NY – Gail Fiero said her family was devastated on Thanksgiving morning to find that their three pet goats had been abused: held down and spray painted, then sickened by eating several magazines left behind by their abuser – pornographic magazines at that.
“We feel terrible about it,” she said yesterday. “These animals are part of our family and to think that someone intentionally hurt them is horrible. I’m heartsick about this. I can’t imagine that someone would have so little regard for life.”
Drew A. Gagnon of Mahopac, 37, is due in Carmel Town Court on Monday, charged with third-degree burglary, a felony, plus three misdemeanor counts of animal-cruelty and one of third-degree criminal trespass, police said. A 34-year-old friend police said drove him to the scene faces a misdemeanor criminal-facilitation charge.
Gagnon is accused of breaking into the Fiero barn on Croton Falls Road about 2 a.m. Thursday, spray painting the three goats in their genital area with bright orange paint and leaving the magazines, police said.
“They weren’t the nicest magazines,” said police Lt. Brian Karst, who said Gagnon may have been involved in some kind of ongoing harassment of the Fiero family.
The Boer goats – two males and a female -got sick after eating the magazines, according to their veterinarian.
In a letter to Carmel police, the vet, Dr. Stacey R. Dallas of Roxbury, Conn., said the animals’ health was endangered.
“The goats were spray painted with potentially toxic paint, which, once absorbed into the circulatory system, could have life-threatening effects on the gastrointestinal system, kidneys and nervous system. The noxious fumes inhaled could also have detrimental effects on their respiratory system,” Dallas wrote. “The spray paint was applied specifically on the genitalia of the goats making it blatantly obvious that these animals were tortured.”
Fiero, 58, said her son, Bryce, 32, owns the goats, and the family was only happy that her two grandchildren were not the ones to discover what happened.
“But they were quite upset to hear about it,” she said.
Two of the goats -a 4-year-old neutered male and a 2 1/2 -year-old female – suffered gastrointestinal ailments from eating the magazines and the third, a 1-year-old male, also had to be treated for a swollen right front leg that apparently was hurt when it was held down to be painted, Dallas wrote.
Officers Ernie Iarussi and Justin Fisher responded to the barn on Thursday and arrested the two suspects Friday night.
Although most Boer goats raised in the United States are used for meat, the animals make good pets, said Robert Swize, executive director of the Texas-based American Boer Goat Association.
“Most of the Boer goats are very docile, which is why some people will keep them as pets,” he said.
