Suffolk SPCA chief Roy Gross has worked to protect animals for 40 years

When Suffolk County SPCA chief Roy Gross recalls some of the nightmarish treatment of animals he’s seen over the past four decades, he still gets choked up.

“I never ever get used to seeing anything like this. It upsets me even talking about it, ” said Gross, 77, the agency’s chief of department.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the county’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Gross was instrumental in starting the agency in 1984 and he has been its leader since 1995. In that time, he has worked to get local, state and federal legislation enacted to protect animals; helped out at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks; and educated the public about the compassionate treatment of animals.

Gross lives and breathes anything related to the SPCA and animals, said Herbert Kellner, board member and co-counsel for the Suffolk County SPCA.

“I really can’t think of a week or even a few days that doesn’t go by where he’s not talking to me about something or anticipating a problem or dealing with an issue,” said Kellner, a former assistant district attorney who prosecuted animal cruelty cases in New York City. “I mean, he gets right into the weeds. He’s very, very involved, even to the smallest of details.”

A LIFELONG LOVE OF ANIMALS

Gross, who grew up in Bellmore, has had a lifelong love of all creatures great and small. Over the years, his pets have included dogs, cats, fish, hamsters, a ferret, an iguana and even a monkey when it was legal to own one as a pet.

“My father used to save animals,” Gross said. “He’d find a squirrel that was on the road that was hurt and he’d take it and either bring it home or somewhere. So, there’s a long history of our love for animals.”

While working as a peace officer/investigator for the Nassau County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Gross said, he worked on an abuse case in the early 1980s in which two children were removed from a home and the mother was arrested. He recalled being shocked that there was no system in place to care for the family’s German shepherd, which was left behind.

“I said, ‘This is unbelievable. How do you walk out and leave an animal like that?’” said Gross, who arranged for a rescue group to pick up the dog.

How do you walk out and leave an animal like that?

Suffolk County SPCA chief Roy Gross

Researching the matter, Gross said he and his friend Dan Domenech, then the schools superintendent in Deer Park, learned that there was a Suffolk County Legislative Animal and Pet Advisory Board, which focused on animal health and welfare as it pertained to breeders and pet stores.

“That was comprised of a Suffolk County K-9 cop, a couple of legislators and some other dignitaries from the county,” Gross said.

After he met with members of that board, Gross recalled, everyone acknowledged the need in Suffolk for an SPCA department — a nonprofit agency with the authority to enforce animal cruelty laws — because the police were busy protecting humans and didn’t have the resources to devote to animals. (Gross focused on Suffolk because by law, he said, there can only be one SPCA per county, and Nassau already had one.)

It started with an office in South Huntington. Now headquartered in Hauppauge, the Suffolk County SPCA includes both police and peace officers, who are limited to very specific duties and do not have the same level of authority as police officers, Gross noted.

“We have at this time about 40 personnel, 19 of whom are peace officers,” Gross said.

The department also has civilian investigators who, Gross said, serve as the eyes and ears of the agency, often checking on whether residents are following the county’s Outdoor Restraint of Pets law. Adopted in 2011, the law mandates, among other provisions, that tethered dogs not be on a choker collar and that they not be tied up outside at all if the temperature is above 90 or below 32 degrees.

Funded entirely through donations, the department’s annual budget is about $200,000. Gross, who owned a business manufacturing maintenance and industrial products company until 2000, has never taken a salary, he said.

NOTORIOUS CRUELTY CASE

Over the years, Gross has been involved in a few notorious animal cruelty cases, including the May 1998 arrest of an Islip Terrace man who made videos of women crushing small animals with their high heels.

“He was selling these videos all over the world,” said Gross, adding, “When we got the call I said, ‘What are you talking about? Who would even want to buy something like that?’ ”

When they examined the evidence to determine the charges, Gross recalled, “Some of these seasoned cops were running to the bathroom throwing up because it was so horrible to see this.”

The case was groundbreaking, Gross said: “From what we understand it was the first arrest on crush videos in the world. Scotland Yard congratulated us on this because it was just so unbelievable.”

At the time, the offense was a misdemeanor and the man was sentenced to 280 hours of community service and three years’ probation. It is now a federal crime and a felony punishable by up to two years in prison to create or distribute animal crush videos.

Suffolk County SPCA investigations have also included dogfighting and cockfighting cases, which in some cases resulted in multistate arrests.

“Not only are they fighting these animals to the death, they have children as spectators and they’re selling drugs and liquor,” Gross said. “So, think about what it does to a child: It desensitizes them.”

WORK AT GROUND ZERO

The Suffolk County SPCA, which also investigates cases of animal hoarding and neglect, was called in by the NYPD after the 2001 terrorist attacks to set up its mobile animal surgical hospital at Ground Zero.

Working for two months with dogs tasked with searching for survivors and human remains, as well as therapy dogs, they set up wash stations, treated the animals’ cuts and scrapes, rehydrated them and irrigated their eyes with saline solution, Gross said.

“Because they were so full of contaminant, they couldn’t smell what they were looking for, so we had to constantly bathe them,” said Gross. “We did this 24/7, providing the service for them, including first aid for the handlers.”

Part of that work included sending officers into residents’ apartments to help them retrieve and examine their pets, he said.

“We were the only ones authorized to be in that hot zone. Not the ASPCA, no other agency. It was the Suffolk County SPCA,” Gross said.

3,000 CALLS IN 2023

Animal cruelty is a sad fact of life that people shouldn’t ignore, Gross said.

In 2023, 3,000 cases of animal abuse were reported in Suffolk County. By contrast, Nassau County’s SPCA received 261 calls about animal cruelty in that same period, according to its board president, Gary Rogers.

Suffolk’s numbers are higher, Gross argued, because there is greater awareness of animal abuse in the county. That is largely due, he believes, to the many educational programs and presentations his department runs in schools and colleges, houses of worship and for judges.

“Every time we do these events, we start getting a lot more calls,” Gross said, adding that they are also teaching children from an early age to respect animals and how to care for them.

His department also trains new police recruits in Suffolk County on animal cruelty and works with the federal and state humane societies to provide training on how to spot animal cruelty and assist with placements in shelters or foster homes.

Gross is a leader in animal protection, not just on Long Island but throughout the state, and can be relied on to support animal protection legislation, said Brian Shapiro, New York director of the Humane Society of the United States.

Gross and his agency supported state legislation aimed at ending the “puppy mill pipeline.” The law, which goes into effect in December, prohibits the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores.

The agency also opposes a state bill that would lift the ban on snare traps, which critics say can injure or lead to the death of wildlife and domestic pets.

“We can’t crack down on animal cruelty in the trenches without having good laws in place,” Shapiro said. “Roy has always understood that, and he not only addresses animal cruelty on the street, he’s also active in Albany supporting these bills.”

Even when he’s not working, animals are never far from Gross’ thoughts: One of his hobbies is photographing wildlife — birds, horses and other mammals, alligators and iguanas — on Long Island and in his travels.

And though he’s now at an age where many start slowing down, Gross said he has no plans to retire any time soon.

“I will do whatever has to be done, as long as I can, to continue to fight against animal cruelty,” Gross said.