Dozens Of Animal Carcasses Found By Hutchinson River Parkway
HARRISON, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Officials launched an investigation after trash bags full of animal carcasses were found near a highway ramp in Westchester on Thursday.
Westchester County Police said the carcasses were found by an early morning cleanup crew, working in a grassy field connecting Westchester Avenue in Harrison to the Hutchinson River Parkway.
"Looks like they were dumped there over a course of time, anywhere from a year to today or yesterday," Westchester County Police Sgt. Edward Reich said.
Dogs, cats and even a pet lizard were among the 35 dead animals found in 25 trash bags dumped along the Hutchinson River Parkway.
"It's devastating. It made me choke a little bit, choke up a little bit," Marcy Rydd told CBS 2's Derricke Dennis.
Rydd works at Westchester County's Pets Alive Rescue Center, a no-kill shelter full of healthy cats and dogs.
"This particular situation could be from an individual, a group of individuals and organization or business. It's all speculation and there's 1,000 ways that those beautiful animals could have wound up like that," she said.
Police theorized the animals may have been legitimately euthanized at an area shelter or shelters, and given to a contractor to cremate or bury them.
"It's very unusual, very unusual to find something like this, and for some of the items to be there for so long without being discovered, because they weren't that far off the roadway," Reich said.
Authorities planned to perform necropsies in the coming days on the few animals that were not yet fully decomposed.
Anyone with information on the dead animals is asked to call the Westchester County Police.
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