Abuse and Corruption at Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter
At TOHAS, rehoming animals takes a back seat to political subterfuge and legal threats against volunteers.
Headlines from Buffalo to Brooklyn
It’s September 13, 2025. This is The Weekly Poop, Totally Definitely 100 Percent In It to Win It Edition.
With just under 800,000 people, the Town of Hempstead, in Nassau County, is the largest town in New York State. This week, TOH finds itself on the business end of three lawsuits filed by volunteers for the town kill pound — a.k.a. Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter — which area power-trippers have for years exploited as a locus of political skullduggery that locals say rewards cronyism and punishes dissent.
As we’ve seen in a nearby jurisdiction, when a “shelter” is foremost a political football, animals and the New Yorkers who care about them suffer as collateral damage. In the case of TOHAS, though, advocates are fighting back for the animals in court — and not for the first time.
“Animal shelter volunteers Nicholas Febrizio, River Carlson and Janice Blake all filed independent lawsuits against the Town of Hempstead over the past few months after receiving unexpected letters from the town on April 9 stating they were banned from all town facilities when they showed up for a volunteer shift,” Long Island Press reported in August. “No reason was provided for the bans, though Febrizio and Blake believe they were targeted for speaking out about issues at the shelter.”
The ban notices were signed and sealed by Hempstead town attorney John Maccarone, who accused Carlson — a TOHAS dog walker for six years — of endangering “the safety, health and welfare” of TOHAS staff.
“Accordingly,” wrote Maccarone, “as a direct consequence of your recent and ongoing violations of the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter Volunteer Guidelines, your volunteer role with Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter is being suspended, effective immediately.”
Maccarone’s letter to Carlson was hand-delivered by Ashley Behrens and John Allback — TOHAS acting director and kennel supervisor, respectively — according to Carlson’s suit, which in addition to TOH names Allback, Behrens and Maccarone as defendants. The complaint, filed by attorney Amanda Disken, claims Carlson got no warnings prior to his suspension.
More from Maccarone’s letter to Carlson:
This suspension is pending further investigation. Throughout the duration of the investigation, you are banned from visiting the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter … as well as all other Town of Hempstead facilities.
Maccarone’s letter does not itemize whatever volunteer rules Carlson suddenly decided to never stop breaking after six years of evident compliance. Nor does it explain why Carlson was suspended prior to an “investigation,” which Maccarone indicates is simultaneously in progress (“pending further investigation”) and not yet started (“contact my office … to commence the investigation”). Nor does Maccarone offer any rationale for ordering Carlson to stay away from, as listed in the suit, “parks, beaches, dog parks, and golf courses” owned by the Town of Hempstead, under threat of criminal prosecution. Protest too much much?
Aside from the fact that each of them volunteered at TOHAS, Carlson, Febrizio and Blake were not connected prior to their suspensions. Regardless, Disken says Carlson’s suspension letter was identical to that issued to Febrizio, whom she is also representing.
Carlson believes he was targeted because he is transgender. Febrizio, who like Carlson volunteered to walk dogs at TOHAS, was banished as he tried to save a dog from extermination.
Last November, TOHAS took possession of pit mix Titan following a “dangerous dog” complaint lodged against his owner. Longtime volunteers say TOHAS will sometimes single out a dog for prolonged abuse by physically isolating him or her like an inmate condemned to the hole; according to Febrizio’s filing, Titan endured “solitary confinement in a 4' x 8'-foot [sic] cage,” was “forbidden from socializing with other dogs and people,” and “prohibited from stepping foot outside TOHAS.”
Febrizio’s suit says Titan’s people disowned him in January. Not long after, Febrizio learned TOHAS planned to exterminate Titan.
At the same time, TOHAS was also failing Butchy, a bulldog who spent most of his life in a crate before Behrens and company exterminated him for momentarily behaving like a dog who spent most of his life in a crate.
From a July 30 email by TOHAS watcher Mim Antoine, sent to more than a dozen TOH and Nassau County officials:
Butchy spent years in the shelter — since he was just [eight] months old — and was finally due to be pulled by rescue. Yet on the very day that should have marked his fresh start, a tragic and avoidable situation occurred, leading to a bite incident and, ultimately, his death. Reports suggest volunteers took him out for photos despite prior warnings and a known bite history — putting both themselves and Butchy at risk. If this is true, it represents a serious and unacceptable failure of protocol and oversight.
I am heartbroken and outraged that a dog who waited so long for a home lost his life because proper procedures were not followed. What makes this even more appalling is that the rescue/sanctuary was still willing to take Butchy after the incident — yet someone made the decision to euthanize him anyway.
Butchy was 4 years old when TOHAS ended his life. Because TOH and TOHAS wanted to. Because applying the needle is easier than doing the work the public pays them to do. Torturing residents who actually care about Nassau County’s homeless companion animal population is a fringe benefit.
“Instead of taking accountability,” TOHAS watcher Amanda Cassidy wrote in a July email to many of the same officials contacted by Antoine, “shelter leadership continues to blame the dogs.”
In early February, using the alias “Nicholas DiFabrizio,” Febrizio set up a “Save Titan” page on Facebook.
From Febrizio’s court filing:
On the “Save Titan” profile, Nicholas posted videos of Titan in his cage at TOHAS showing Titan's very somber life in the shelter. Through the page, Nicholas pleaded with supporters to contact the Defendant Town, the Town Supervisor, TOHAS and others, so that Titan could, for example, see daylight, have exercise, and have human touch. The page garnered a strong rallying force against euthanizing Titan.
The Febrizio complaint says that in March TOH moved to have a judge sign off on Titan’s extermination, pursuant to the state’s dangerous dog statute. At a subsequent hearing, held April 4, deputy TOH attorney Edward Lino remarked on the “social media crusade” to save Titan’s life.
Febrizio attended the April 4 hearing to testify in Titan’s defense. Judge Ari Schulman denied the request, telling Febrizio he “may have an opportunity to speak at a future hearing.” That didn’t happen. On April 11, Behrens and Allback handed Febrizio the letter from Maccarone, dated April 9, banning him from government facilities. Fearing arrest, Febrizio missed the next Titan hearing, held on April 16.
“The ban has chilled Nicholas’ speech and has prevented him from assembling and accessing government,” Febrizio’s complaint reads. Of course, the TOH suspension notice doesn’t reference the social media campaign to save Titan, as doing so would suggest TOH meant to punish Febrizio for exercising his Constitutional rights. Thanks to an exquisite self-own on the part of Maccarone’s office, it turns out no mention was necessary.
The complaint explains:
The Suspension Letter … was addressed to "Nicholas DiFabrizio," which … was and remains the Plaintiff's Facebook alias. The Defendants knew the Plaintiff's real name was Nicholas Febrizio by virtue of, inter alia, his volunteer application and background check. The use of "Nicholas DiFabrizio" on the Suspension Letter was, upon information and belief, a "Freudian slip."
Oops. There it is.
Thanks to Febrizio and other TOHAS watchers, the “shelter” failed to exterminate Titan, who was ultimately released to Ulster County Canines to begin the rest of his life. Unfortunately, Titan wasn’t the only dog held prisoner at TOHAS.
Again, from Mim Antoine’s July 30 email to local leaders:
Dogs like Buster Brown, Princess Mya, Shawn, Dexter, and Lance continue to languish behind bars, deteriorating without proper behavioral support, consistent training, or pathways to adoption. These animals are not being failed because they are inherently dangerous, but because the system in place is broken. It is unfair and inhumane to keep them in confinement for years without providing them with a real chance to succeed.
The pending lawsuits against TOH and TOHAS are only the most recent. In 2013, Diane Madden of East Meadow and two other plaintiffs won a settlement after they were banned for calling out abuse at TOHAS and, according to the suit, were subsequently slandered by TOH officials.
The plaintiffs’ assertions concerning horrid conditions at TOHAS were supported by a 2012 audit by the state comptroller’s office, which uncovered all manner of fiscal and operational shenanigans.
Madden told TSNY that reforms instituted after the audit, implemented because TOHAS “had no choice,” were later “dismantled.”
“The experts were set up to fail or pushed out,” says Madden. “The shelter once again became a taxpayer-funded employment agency for the politically connected and the unqualified. [Ed. note: TSNY will have more on TOHAS cronyism later. Much more, looks like.] What had been built through hard-won litigation and community advocacy was reduced to rubble.”
Madden’s advice to current TOHAS litigants: don’t settle, so the animals get their day in court.
“Corruption thrives on complacency,” says Madden. “Animals trapped in this system have no voice but ours.”
TSNY queried Maccarone and Behrens regarding current litigation against TOH and TOHAS and related issues. There was no reply.
The Scoop New York will have more coverage of Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in the coming weeks and months.
Here’s the latest New York companion animal news:
You can love companion animals or you can love watching their adoptive families terrorized by the government, but not both.
Eric Adams, struggling to manifest the next grift as his administration circles the drain, may like so many others soon learn what it means to shackle one’s self to Donald Trump.
With the mayoral primary in the rearview, Buffalo pols have resumed ignoring the plight of animals and constituents at Buffalo Animal Shelter.
“Animal Abuse Cases on the Rise in Upstate New York”: There’s a reason for that.
Related: Clifton Park Sen. Jim Tedisco wants state oversight of pet boarding facilities following the heat death — which Tedisco called a “murder” — of French bulldog Gus earlier this year.
Related: Seems the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets will have to add more true/false questions to its single-page shelter “inspection” form when new standards take effect in December.
SPCA Serving Erie County’s “Tale for Two” reading initiative sounds cool and adorable.
Four dogs died in a fire at a rescue in Cheektowaga.
New York Off-Track Betting: cruelty-as-entertainment with the obligatory helpings of bald-faced corruption and graft.
Fort Greene Park Conservancy NIMBYs are warning that dogs will overrun the park if new housing comes to Flatbush Avenue.
And finally: Social media remains awful, even (or maybe especially) when trying to help homeless animals.
Food recalls
The FDA announced no new pet food recalls this week. Check here for info on prior recalls.