Horrifying Sight Of 2 Dead Animal Bodies Shocks Community

GREENPORT, NY —Greenport Village residents were horrified after a resident out walking saw two dead animals left on the street with a sign, "Anyone missing a cat?"

(Warning: The photo below is graphic and may upset some readers.)

Gary Charters posted a photo online saying that his wife Eileen Wachtel Charters was out walking on Front Street, just west of 4th Street on Monday around lunchtime when she came across a disturbing sight.

"This is not pretty and I’m disgusted that I’m posting this," he wrote.

He asked Greenport Village Trustee Mary Bess Phillips to have village crews remove the carcasses. "If someone thinks it’s a joke or funny they are very sick people," he said.

Phillips responded and said the village road crew had taken care of the situation.

Some people online said the incident should be reported to police, adding that "serial killers and psychopaths" often start out by killing and torturing animals.

Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said he had just heard about the incident and saw no calls reporting the discovery to the police department.

Flatley said that later in the day he sent an officer to the location to make sure the animals were removed, which they had been by Greenport Village Highway Dept.

The officer went door-to-door in the immediate area and located a homeowner who stated that they had contractors working in an outbuilding/attachment to their house; the contractors discovered the two "petrified animals" in the photograph.

"They placed the animal in a debris pile in the yard and that’s the last they saw of them," Flatley said. "It is still unclear how they ended up in the position they did in the picture."

Flatley said police notified the SPCA of the outcome and they did not respond to investigate.

SPCA Chief Roy Gross, early Tuesday, said he had an SPCA lieutenant make calls to investigate.

On Tuesday afternoon, Gross also said there appeared to have been construction workers repairing the footing of a building nearby. The animals, which were likely a cat and a possum, appeared to have become trapped in the building, or may have been sick and hiding in a crevice, he said.

Workmen discarded the bodies, he said, and someone then moved them to the location where they were found and wrote the sign. But since the animals' bodies were disposed of, Gross said, there is only speculation.

He said from the photos, he does not believe there was foul play involved. But without the bodies, which seem to have been discarded, there is no way to investigate the case.

"It's not funny, not a prank. This was something children, and even adults, could see and find very disturbing," Gross said.

He added that the public outcry echoed the concern for animals he sees more often than not. "People care," he said. "And more often than not, people do the right thing."

Photo courtesy Gary Charters and Eileen Wachtel Charters.