John Di Leonardo bought a surprising name when a Lengthy Island bull that famously escaped slaughter in 2023 was lastly discovered after two months on the lam in Suffolk County.
“We have been on the cellphone with the police. They stated, ‘We’re gonna shoot him,’ ” Di Leonardo, Humane Lengthy Island’s government director and anthrozoologist, not too long ago recalled to The Submit.
“I yelled, ‘No, don’t try this! I’ll get a sanctuary on the way in which! I’ll be proper there!’ So fortunately, they listened and simply corralled him and didn’t take that shot they’d deliberate,” he stated.
The frantic intervention landed the iconically brash bovine, aptly renamed “Bully Joel” after one other well-known Lengthy Islander, a peaceable life in New Jersey.
It additionally was simply is one in all many wild encounters Di Leonardo has had on the job, the place he strives to guard all creatures nice and small from Manhattan to Montauk.
“We save about 1,200 animals a 12 months,” Di Leonardo stated on the grounds of Humane Lengthy Island’s Baiting Hole facility, the place he and his spouse, Juliana, look after animals earlier than their new, secure endlessly house will get finalized.
“We get animals in each single week. It may very well be a handful — or it may very well be 200,” stated Di Leonardo, who has safely wrangled many different bulls in his job as effectively.
Di Leonardo’s position is treating critters which are both deserted or rescued from harrowing circumstances throughout Lengthy Island and components of New York Metropolis, akin to a small kangaroo — additionally known as a wallaby — named “Jackie Legs” who was recovered from the Coney Island boardwalk in 2023.
“We really bought a name about him being exploited in Madison Sq. Park. There was a man charging cash for footage,” he stated, recalling {that a} involved citizen had no luck with police, as they have been unfamiliar with authorized technicalities.
Ultimately, Di Leonardo teamed up with the NYPD’s animal cruelty unit to create an undercover operation, utilizing the volunteer caller as a spy to tail the marsupial’s handler, then 22-year-old Michael Gibbons, who had purchased his pet for almost $4,000.
“She sat on him for a few hours whereas the authorities bought themselves collectively, bought down there and confiscated that wallaby,” Di Leonardo stated. “Now he lives in a sanctuary the place he’s residing a way more pure life.”
One other time final 12 months, the animal rescuer had the duty of dealing with a South African ostrich, also called a lesser rhea, discovered inside a Bellmore, LI, basement with a number of different unique animals.
“It was big at 5 months outdated — virtually as tall as me,” he stated. “She was surrounded by venomous reptiles, and I’m certain she was terrified.”
Different circumstances contain animal abandonment, akin to a current baker’s dozen of geese rescued from a Brookhaven, LI, park.
He stated Suffolk County has turn out to be an unlucky current hotspot for deserted animals, notably because the Double D Bar Ranch in Manorville was slammed with 112 animal-neglect counts final winter.
“We had over 160 birds from them,” stated Di Leonardo, who’s been swung at and gotten demise threats whereas doing his job at occasions.
In different cases, he’s negotiated the discharge of animals from slaughterhouses by buying and selling vegan meals with the companies.
Di Leonardo additionally launched a particularly uncommon orange lobster into North Fork waters after it was noticed contained in the tank of a ShopRite in Bay Shore on Friday. The grocery chain was comfortable to oblige.
Di Leonardo, who used to work with individuals with particular wants, stated, “I at all times wished to assist the group that wanted probably the most on the planet.
“Proper now, there’s no different group on the planet that’s being exploited and harmed on such a big scale as animals.”
He stated one in all his favourite facets of the job, the place many rescues can be viewable at Humane Lengthy Island’s Aug. 6 gala in Riverhead, is witnessing how animals adapt after just some days out of hurt’s method.
“They’ve by no means identified a human contact to be a very good factor. So once they come, they’re usually terrified,” he stated.
“After a few days or possibly a few weeks, they understand that we’re right here to like them and look after them. A lot of them turn out to be very social and can observe us round and crave our consideration.”
