Mitchell and Terri Ross of Lewiston, New York, are each facing seven misdemeanor animal cruelty charges after investigators removed 109 rabbits and four Persian cats from their property this month. According to the Niagara SPCA, all of the rabbits were being kept in a shed with no real ventilation, where investigators measured an indoor temperature of 90 degrees even on a relatively mild day outside. A few of the rabbits had already died and were found covered in maggots.

"The feces were piled so high … it was touching the wire crate where the rabbits' feet go … you could tell it was probably like that for a long time," according to Adrianna Provenzano, animal cruelty investigator for the Niagara SPCA. Investigators say the four Persian cats, found in the garage, were matted so severely to their skin that they had to be sedated just to be safely shaved.

New York law currently treats cases like this one, involving more than 100 suffering animals, as misdemeanors. That is not enough. We're calling on the Lewiston Town Court to impose the maximum penalties available under current law and to add Mitchell and Terri Ross to New York's animal abuse registry if they are convicted. We're also calling on the New York State Legislature to strengthen penalties for large-scale animal neglect, so a case involving over a hundred animals carries consequences that match the harm.

Animals like these cannot speak up for themselves. Sign the petition to demand full accountability in the Lewiston case and stronger protections for animals across New York before another 113 are left to suffer like this.