Owner of iguanas is charged with cruelty

[faze]

Date: Apr 04, 2004 - 12:52 PM
Animal authorities
seeking a home
for surviving reptile
BY TARA PETERSEN
Staff Writer


MONROE - Only one of two pet iguanas found in an unheated tractor-trailer last week was able to survive. A third was already dead.

Last week, an employee of Quality Star Trucking spotted two of the animals inside the cab of a Tennessee-registered Freight Liner tractor-trailer that had been dropped off for repairs more than two days before.

Police responded and called Animal Control and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to the scene.

"They were in a dormant state from being so cold," Sgt. Walter Mychalchyk, of the Middlesex County SPCA law enforcement department, said Monday.

The animals were rushed to the Sayrebrook Veterinary Hospital in Sayreville, where Dr. Joseph Chiosi and his staff worked to revive them. One did not survive the night.

"It died from hypothermia," Chiosi said. "I’m not a reptile specialist, but literature I’ve read showed iguanas optimally shouldn’t get under 71 degrees (Fahrenheit)."

The surviving iguana is showing signs of recovery.

"It seems like a normal iguana right now. It’s eating; it’s climbing on the front of the cage," Chiosi said. "We’re trying to place him in a home."

Chiosi said he is working with Sayrebrook Pet Adoption Center to place the iguana in a home. The animal is 3 to 4 pounds, and close to 2 1/2 feet long, he said.

Chiosi said the reptiles were brought to him because he is the designated animal control veterinarian for Monroe .

Mychalchyk said that animal control officer Frank Faraone took the two animals to the hospital while he and animal control officer Mark Ladzinski waited for the driver, 33-year-old Michigan resident Keith Burgess, to pick up his truck.

Burgess was arrested and charged with animal cruelty and abandonment and processed at Middlesex County Adult Correction Center, North Brunswick. Bail was set at $1,500.

Mychalchyk said that after speaking with the wife of the driver, he discovered there was a third iguana that had died several days before the truck broke down.

"We found the third one wrapped in a towel stuffed under the sleeper bed. She claimed they were going to take it home to bury it. She claimed the one that had died had parasites," Mychalchyk said.

Mychalchyk said Burgess also claimed to have a dog with heartworms that he ultimately released to officials.

Mychalchyk said Burgess is subject to more than a disorderly persons offense.

"Most are disorderly with a maximum of $1,000 and six months in jail," he said. "This is a fourth-degree crime. There could be a lot more jail time and the fine could be much higher."