Excrement-filled hellhole
After 20 dogs saved & 2 men busted, susp back for mayhem
Angry that cops and the ASPCA seized 20 dogs and puppies he’s accused of keeping in filthy and squalid conditions, a Brooklyn man attacked his landlord Thursday night, the landlord said — and cops confirmed the man was taken into custody.
Ravon Service, 26, was with relatives when he attacked her after cops booked him on multiple misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty, criminal mischief and endangering the welfare of a child, said his landlord, Kennisha Gilbert.
Service and a second suspect in the case, Tafaniel Michaud, 27, who was charged with criminal mischief, were both released on desk appearance tickets after their arrest at their home Thursday morning.
When Gilbert returned to her home Thursday night, Service were waiting for her, with several relatives as backup, she said.
“[The police] drove off and left me to fend for myself,” said Gilbert, a physician with an OB-GYN practice.
“’Where my dogs at?’” Service said, in Gilbert’s retelling.
Service then punched her, said Gilbert, 40. The group also beat up Gilbert’s husband before cops arrived and placed them under arrest, she said.
“I got beaten on my own property. This is not right,” Gilbert said.
Police sources confirmed cops responded to the home after Service complained the locks to his apartment were changed, and returned a half-hour later after getting a report of the assault.
Service and three other suspects were taken into custody and charges against them are pending, said cops.
Earlier Thursday, police rescued the 20 dogs and puppies from an apartment so squalid their urine leaked down the walls into the bedroom one floor below.
Cops removed the pups with the help of the ASPCA Thursday morning, and arrested their owner and another person.
Gilbert said she begged police and the city to help for months and only got action after posting heartbreaking photos and videos on Twitter.
“This has gone on long enough,” Gilbert said earlier Thursday.
“I’ve got urine coming down my walls. The smell is so bad I can’t open my windows. I can’t leave my door open. I can’t open my front door.”
An ASPCA spokeswoman said several of the dogs were crammed together in small cages, covered in feces and urine. The second-floor apartment at E. 94th St. near Avenue A in Canarsie has poor ventilation and
reeked of ammonia.
“Upon arrival on scene, it was clear these animals were living in terrible conditions and needed to be immediately rescued and brought to safety,” said Howard Lawrence, Vice President of ASPCA Humane Law Enforcement.
Gilbert said Service is the son of a couple who took moved into the apartment 2019.
She gave notice to the couple she wasn’t going to renew their lease because of fighting and other problems, but the pandemic’s eviction moratorium resulted in them staying in the apartment.
The couple eventually moved out, and Service took their place in January, she said.
Then the barking started, as well as flooding from above. Gilbert started making complaints to the 311 hotline, then the 67th Precinct and City Hall.
“Eventually the neighbors started to complain as well — the smell, the flies, the noise,” she said.
She recalled people ringing her doorbell, believing she had dogs for sale.
The ASPCA tried to get into the apartment over the summer, but the tenants didn’t open the door.
She said she was rebuffed by the 67th Precinct, prompting her to take to social media. “If no one’s willing to help me, I’m going to go to the court of public opinion, and that’s when I started posting on Twitter, tagging elected officials,” she said.
She started tweeting in mid-September. An NYPD spokesman said Thursday night that the department’s Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad started an investigation at the end of August.
Gilbert posted video of the dogs in cages. In one post on Saturday, she wrote, “After a grueling 24 hr shift, I came home to urine coming down the wall of my boys bedroom. NYS would like my family and the abused animals to continue living like this – blanket eviction moratorium.”