BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Investigative Reporter Reporters

Note: Kim Von Hein, Co-President of Hi Tor Animal Shelter Inc. took Umbridge with Part One of this series of stories when the word missing was inadvertently used when talking about monies that Hi Tor had received from Rockland Green. The error was corrected. She was twice offered a chance to do an interview to explain her side of this story. As of the writing of this part of the story (April 30, 2024) she has not responded to the offer. Gary Kogut, President of Hi Tor Animal Shelter Inc. was also offered another interview back on November 6, 2023, and also has not responded.

In an update to earlier reporting on this story regarding money needing to be credited to Rockland Green by Hi Tor Animal Care Inc, according to Howard Phillips, Chairman of Rockland Green, the amount outstanding after negotiations between lawyers for both sides is $147,000. “We agreed to $147,000 which they’re good with. There may be some monies they had at the beginning of September before we terminated the agreement, so that figure of $165,000 came out to be $147K and they have agreed on that.” Phillips said. He added, “We have not agreed that there was an outstanding cost for those few days that we were still operating in September, so negotiations are still going back and forth.” There is no set date yet for the remission of the money.

There have been many changes at the RG C.A.R.E.S (formerly Hi Tor) shelter. Based on the pictures and videos from September when Four Legs Good took over the day to day running of the shelter and videos taken from a recent tour of the shelter, the changes are obvious. The facility is cleaner. The areas where the animals are kept are free from bugs and abnormal odors. Mike Sanducci, director of the shelter pointed this out. He also explained about the air conditioning problems.

Another issue with the conditions in the shelter, according to Sanducci, was the fact that the cages were not cleaned and sanitized regularly. This was on top of the fact that a lot of the rooms were missing floor and ceiling tiles as well as light fixtures. “A lot of these cages had not been taken out of these areas for two to four years to be sanitized properly, decontaminated. That’s something we do on a regular basis. Every couple of weeks we’ll take this entire room out and scrub the walls, and floors.”

This statement goes contrary to the claim made by Gary and Hilda Kogut that the shelter was clean and neat when they left it. When examining multiple housing units for the cats, Sanducci pointed to the new air conditioners which he said had to be purchased because the old ones were infested with mold. This is in violation of NYS Agricultural Law SECTION 401 Minimum standards of animal care Agriculture & Markets (AGM) CHAPTER 69, ARTICLE 26-A which states that:

(c) Housing facilities shall be adequately ventilated at all times to provide for the health and well-being of the animal. Ventilation shall be provided by natural or mechanical means, such as windows, vents, fans, or air conditioners. Ventilation shall be established to minimize drafts, odors, and moisture condensation.

“There was a lack of care, compassion, education, and experience. Most of the employees weren’t experienced and didn’t have the knowledge to take proper care of these animals.” Sanducci added.

As reported in Part 1 of this series of stories, people had gone to the shelter looking for a family pet and were told they had no family friendly pets. When asked about the demeanor of the pets they had in the shelter that were there in September that were still there, Sanducci said, “A lot of them have changed. When we got here, we couldn’t even handle them or touch them, just from lack of socialization, stress. There’s lots of different things that are put into that.” He demonstrated the change with one particular cat.

Hilda Kogut complained about the length of time they had to wait and fight to get another dumpster for all of the trash. “How long did we have to fight to get an additional dumpster for trash on a regular basis?

When asked about why Hi Tor had to fight for a long time to get a dumpster, Phillips replied, “If they needed another dumpster all they had to do was pick up the phone and get another dumpster.”

Sanducci explained that there were always garbage bins at the facility and that there was no reason there should have been bags of garbage laying around.

My sources were telling me that in this room over here that there were dogs locked in here and were scratching the door frame apart. Sanducci responded, “Absolutely. They even broke through the walls. You can see it right here they were ripping through the sheet rock, trying to break through and get out of here. We did get a new floor out of it. It certainly makes a difference.”

You could see the damage done to the door frame and there was a piece of plywood attached to the wall where the sheet rock was torn up and a small piece ripped from the wall itself.

In order to make sure that there is not another outbreak of any ailment, like the feline panleukopenia virus in which 35 cats perished due to, according to Rockland Green, a lack of care by the Hi Tor people, there are isolation rooms for monitoring specific ailments. There is an upper respiratory isolation room as well as a ringworm isolation room. The animals stay in isolation for at least 14 days before it can go into population.

Sanducci explained that this was not the case under Hi Tor. “When we got here, there were sick cats, healthy cats, moms, kittens together, there weas no segregation. It was a big problem.”

Four Legs Good also monitors the daily walking of the dogs on a white board. “We make sure that every dog gets out every day, whether it’s for a walk, exercising in the play yards or whatever the case may be. We’ve cross trained all of the staff here so they can walk all of the dogs here every day. Every day we give a few of them a few dogs to take care of and that’s their responsibility. When the volunteers come in and take them out, they get a second chance to get out.” Sanducci explained.

Prior to Four Legs Good coming in, Sanducci said that he was told that there were dogs that hadn’t been out of their cages for days or weeks. Some dogs only had one person that was handling them and if that person wasn’t here for a few days, that dog didn’t get out. “We make sure there is somebody here every day that can handle every dog.” The lack of walking and exercise for the dogs that Sanducci was talking about is in violation of Agricultural Law SECTION 401 Minimum standards of animal care Agriculture & Markets (AGM) CHAPTER 69, ARTICLE 26-A Section 7

Exercise requirements. Pet dealers shall develop, maintain, document, and implement an appropriate plan to provide dogs with the opportunity for daily exercise. In developing such plan, consideration should be given to providing positive physical contact with humans that encourages exercise through play or other similar activities. Such plan shall be approved by the attending veterinarian, and must be made available to the department upon request.

They even go so far as to color code the dogs so that the proper care can be given to them.

There is an area for Ferrel cats that were on the property when Four Legs Good got there. According to Jeremy Apotheker, “There were allegations that when Hi Tor was here, they had cats they couldn’t control or just didn’t want anything to do with and they would set them loose on the property. This precipitated having a whole bunch of friendly stray cats on the premises.”

This story is not over. There are still legal matters being worked on between Rockland Green and Hi Tor Animal Care Inc with regards to how the facility was run and settling up any financial issues that had arisen. Part 6 of this series will be looking at the new shelter that will be housing the animals when it is completed.

BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Investigative Reporter

Interest in astronomy was peaked this year with the full solar eclipse which occurred on April 8, 2024. People gathered across New York State with special glasses and other viewing apparatus to watch the moon make its transit across the sun. This interest in astronomy has an annual champion in the form of the Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) taking place in the fieldhouse at Rockland Community College in April, which is a convention of vendors selling everything from binoculars to telescopes that cost tens of thousands of dollars and speakers on everything from how to predict the weather to space and the search for Earth like exoplanets and life outside of our solar system. This year the event took place on April 20 – 21. Along with the vendors selling telescopes, there are non-profit organizations, and every year, The USS Abraham Lincoln a science fiction group and the Suffern High School Robotics team are there showing off their organizations.

Ayushi Mehrotra, a sophomore who is the programmer for the team explained what her role is.

Ethan Leon, a designer on the team showed his part of the project and how it worked. “I made the claw intake for the robot.” Students join various teams and activities for a variety of reasons, Leon said he joined the Robotics team through outreaches like this. “I saw the Robotics Team everywhere and got interested.” His part of the robot is a very integral part of it. Without that part, the robot would not be able to complete its task for the competition.

The students demonstrated how their robot works, with practiced precision.

There is a fitness craze going on in this country. Many different fitness places are opening up and people are flocking to them. Well, even the robots are getting into the idea of exercising and staying fit.

Along with the real science present at NEAF, science fiction has its place at the expo. On September 8, 1966, what was to become a science fiction juggernaut began with the airing of the Star Trek Original Series episode “The Man Trap”. Since then, ten other Star Trek series, including three animated ones and thirteen movies have had fans traveling all over this galaxy and into other realities. Starfleet International is the largest Star Trek fan club in the world with more than 230 chapters all over the world and over 5000 members.

There is a local chapter of Starfleet International here in the Hudson Valley. It was named the USS Abraham Lincoln by its commanding officer. Commander Andrew Sterman, the first officer, (second in command) of the USS Abraham Lincoln, gave a brief history of the chapter and explained why the Lincoln was participating at NEAF. “We have been around since 2009 and serve the lower Hudson Valley. We’ve come to NEAF every year since 2017 to highlight the organization and our particular chapter with the hope of attracting new members. So far, every year we have gotten at least one new member as a result of our participation at NEAF.” We try to make it easy for people to sign up with us if they want to by having two computers set up with the Starfleet website join tab on screen.

With the international clientele in attendance, we have helped chapters around the world gain new members.

Businesses such as Andover Corporation, based in New Hampshire, which makes imaging filters and other items for observatories came to show their wares to the astronomical public. “We’ve been in business for about forty-eight years.” stated Joshua Jones, one of two company representatives at NEAF.

Tina Hippock, the other representative said, “We’re here to let people know what we do.”

NEAF would not be possible without the general public coming to see the vendors and guests. Two guests who have been coming for years are Paul from Redding PA and his daughter Allison from Allentown Pa. “I have been coming here since the beginning. As far as coming here every year, it kind of gives you that energy about astronomy and what it is to be an amateur astronomer.”

She enjoys coming with her father to this event.

NEAF is not just for vendors looking to make money on their products. Non – profit organizations come to see about getting help with their charitable work. Shannon and April Russell were promoting one such organization is Astronomers without Borders.

Extra Life, another non-profit organization which donates money to children’s hospitals takes a modern day approach to raising money for their charitable work. John Pezzino described what the organization is and does.

NEAF has had very prominent guests speak at the expo. Meteorologist Joe Rao formerly of News 12, planetary scientist and professor Janie Radebaugh, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, various astronauts and others involved in studying the cosmos from around the world and NEAF shows no sign of slowing down.