Even after 85 Chihuahuas were removed from a Passyunk Square home two weeks ago, the fight is far from over — for the residents and the animals.
The City’s Department of Licenses and Inspections condemned 739 Earp Street, which formerly housed about 90 animals — including Isabel, right, July 14. (Photos by Greg Bezanis and PSPCA)
A sign posted by the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections on the door of 739 Earp St. instructed for the removal of debris and animal waste and deemed the residence “unfit for human habitation.” The alleged owners Richard and Franny Rotunda — the latter who, according to residents, is believed to be a former Chihuahua breeder — were forced to vacate the property prior to midnight July 15, according to the sign.
The Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PSPCA) received a search warrant July 14 for the property near Eighth and Reed streets and retrieved 85 Chihuahuas, two cats and two additional dead Chihuahuas over the course of several hours that evening from the three-story dwelling with feces covering each floor, Liz Williamson, PSPCA’s director of public relations, said.
While she would not give details on the history of the case, residents have said that the PSPCA and police have visited the home in the past, but the owners would not allow entry without a warrant.
“A search warrant is not able to be obtained without probable cause and up until that point we did not have probable cause to present in order to obtain that warrant,” Williamson said.
The PSPCA has declined to comment on the specifics for the warrant being issued.
According to police records, 3rd District police were called seven times to investigate the home in the past four years including for people screaming and dogs barking.
The cause of death for the two dogs has not yet been determined and Williamson could not divulge too much on the medical condition of the remaining dogs except that they were living in unsanitary conditions and there were issues with parasites. She also could not confirm the owners’ names or if both would be charged, but that charges are pending and should be filed shortly, she said.
Aside from removing animal feces, its owners are expected to repair the interior and the roof as well as professionally exterminate the building to rid the “infestation by insects, rodents, vermin or other pests,” according to L&I’s Code Enforcement Unit.
One resident of Seventh and Earp streets, who did not wish to be named, said his cousins grew up with Richard and he knew the couple his whole life.
“She’s my friend,” he said. “She don’t hurt nobody. She loves animals. She don’t hurt nobody. She’s a very, very, very nice person.”
Weeks later, curtains still cover most of the windows that kept neighbors in the dark about what was going on inside the home that allegedly emitted a strong stench that stretched not only across the 700 block of Earp, but also to neighboring blocks, according to residents.
“Oh it did,” Diane Scafidi, of Seventh and Earp streets, said. “I just used to just walk out in the street [and smell it]. I knew it was coming from that house. You heard them barking and yelling.”
While Scafidi had only resided in her current home for the past two months, neighbors filled in the details of the ongoing battle that had stretched back to 2006, she said. She was home during the raid and saw the dogs that looked healthy being taken from the home.
“Yeah, it was sad,” she said. “I couldn’t even watch. I watched a few then I came in.”
While Nancy Trachtenberg couldn’t smell if from her home on Eight and Wharton streets, she was aware of the problem through word of mouth.
“I don’t think anyone had any idea the seriousness of the disaster,” she said as she and her 7-year-old daughter, Benna, walked cairn terrier, Snacks, in the neighborhood last week. “It’s horrible, it’s disgusting, it’s abuse to animals and it’s sad.”
But not everyone on the block knew of the stench while some previously had a whiff, but weren’t sure of its origin.
“Sometimes in the night it didn’t smell good, but I don’t know what happened,” one man said.
Passyunk Square residents are beginning to breathe easier after more than 80 dogs were rescued from a home on the 700 block of Earp Street last week.
Article:
Fels falls on rough times
Article:
Consolidating Catholic Education: Proposed Stella Maris merge
Article:
Consolidating Catholic Education: St. Gabriel and St. Thomas
Article:
'The Wizard of Oz' spotlights PPACS pupils
Article:
2011 News Year in Review: Comings and goings
Article:
Xfinity Live! plans spring opening
Article:
Future questionable for Manton Street Park
Article:
Filitalia continues holiday mission
1. Anonymous said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 11:11AM
““Someone supposedly made a false report that they eyewitinessed something and that enabled it to get done,” he said.
This weirdo on twitter @Leilathegoodrat did that. that's her M.O. FALSE REPORTS Mrs.Frances Rotonta has been notified of who filed the false report. The person that goes by leilathegoodrat said she moved a mile away but she's a neighbor, I know , I live on the same block and she's full of shit.”
2. leila said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 12:49PM
“Oops sorry about that! I didn't mean to post that a million times, it wasn't doing anything so I kept hitting the button. Yeah but anyway story of my life is I am being followed around the internet by a bunch of kids who are mad that I wrote a bunch of blogs making fun of their idol Tila Tequila. She's always doing crazy stuff on twitter and faking suicide and pregnancies so it makes for funny blog posts; unfortunately her fans are insane and don't like it when people insult their leader lol I bet Frances Rotonta is a Tila fan.
Anyway, if I was the one to make the tip I wouldn't be telling anyone, especially my stalkers, so they really have no first knowledge of anything. I want to clear up that I don't live on the street, as anyone who's seen my blogs on the Rotontas will tell you, there is no way in hell I would have lived on that street and let that crap go on for years. I'm not intimidated by the Rotontas and their trashy supporters, they think they run that block just”
3. leila said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 01:01PM
“they can get away with bullying a bunch of transplants and younger people who were trying to act like civilized humans and not get feces smeared on their doors. I didn't make the tip but I sent out 400-600 e-mails within the 2 days before the house got raided, I talked to everyone I could think of in every line of work, by the time I was done even professional athletes and people in England knew what you were up to. If people think they are going to scare me by making stuff up and "telling" on me to the Rotontas, they're dead wrong. I'm all over the internet talking about these people, when I found out what was going on in the house and how the city was covering up I set out on a mission to do what I could LEGALLY to get that spot raided and I wasn't sleeping until those dogs were free. This was a house of horrors and this isn't some nice old lady who loved her dogs so much that she wanted 1000 of them. She wasn't out "rescuing" animals like the Olney hoarder, she's responsible for”
4. leila said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 01:09PM
“bringing those animals into this world through her own neglect and laziness. Too lazy to try and sell the dogs she was supposedly breeding, too lazy to get the dogs fixed, too lazy to let them out, too lazy to pick up the 3 feet of feces in her home, too lazy to even pick up the dead dogs rotting on the floor. How about years before the raid when she admitted to a neighbor that a dog had become trapped in the closet where it died and was rotting for weeks? PSPCA couldn't get a warrant for that because of course Frances would just tell them out the window that the neighbors were making up lies about her. Yeah she's obviously mentally ill but so was Dahmer and I didn't hear anyone protesting locking him up. The neighbors that enabled her and continue to enable her by acting like this is all ok are just as sick. You are all an embrassment to South Philly. And it's not just me and my friends on twitter who think that, I'm not saying anything that I haven't already heard from dozens of”
5. Leila said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 01:18PM
“people outside on the streets, in line at the grocery store, and sitting at their dinner tables discussing how those toxic fumes made half of Earp St. crazy. We have people like "Kristin Cruz" on the news threatening the people who helped in rescuing those dogs, and neighbors getting bricks threw their windows because they have some crazy belief that people should be able to breathe the air inside their homes without having to wear a gas mask. Now people all over America are seeing this and thinking that South Philly is full of scumbags, thanks for the shame you've brought upon our community. Time to pack up and move to Kensington or better yet some backwoods hick town, you can build a mountain of feces in your backyards that you can roll around in so you'll feel more at home. DiCicco's done protecting you and the whole country is watching you, I'm thinking your bullying days have come to an end.”
6. Anonymous said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 01:48PM
“The real issue is that 85 dogs were living in a small home and no one in an official capcity did anything to help them. Anyone who has even the most minimal knowledge of caring for dogs knows that the environment on Earp St. was abnormal and detrimental to the health and welfare of canines.
Where is the DOG WARDEN? The owner of the house did NOT have a kennel license so is the Bureau of Dog Law going to pursue charges for (a) lack of individual dog licenses and (b) rabies vaccines? The Bureau of Dog Law has been crying poor and here is an opportunity to boost the bank account.
There is something VERY wrong with this picture. It never should have taken so long for the PSPCA to obtain a search warrant and, despite what Liz Williamson says, the PSPCA seriously dropped the ball on this house of horrors.
The police, too, have the ability to cite citizens for animal abuse per Section 5511 of the crimes code. Where were they?”
7. Anonymous said... on Jul 29, 2010 at 03:49PM
“PA Dog law bureau has been contacted numerous times by numerous people and as far as I know they have not written anyone back. People have even written to Rendell to ask him why the Dog Bureau isn't responding, no answer from him either.”
8. terri said... on Jul 30, 2010 at 12:35AM
“You don't have to like your neighbors. But unless you're willing to move, you have to live next to them. So stop all the whining. I don't know this dog lady and I don't care who she is. If she was my neighbor, I would have called a false report in, too. Any rational human being can see (and smell?) that the living conditions in her house were sub-human. And she has no right to have that many dogs. I don't care if she breeds them or how much she "loves" them. That was animal abuse. So, clean it up and move on. Stop giving all of South Philadelphia a bad image.”
9. Anonymous said... on Jul 30, 2010 at 12:52PM
“My goodness, do the people on this street --the defenders-- have any comprehension of how crazy this seems? I live in Minnesota and people from Philly told me about it. I'm spreading this story to my friends. Once you leave the confines of that neighborhood (to think I was so close when I visited Pat's), the logic of the people who live there and think they know better is exposed for being a bit out of touch. It's small town syndrome on a neighborhood scale.”
10. Anonymous said... on Jul 30, 2010 at 07:24PM
“Maybe the person who filed the false report better pray that they don't get charged by Philly's finest or better yet get "Sued" by the Rotunta's for slander from their false report. Since the filing of a false report led to the Rontuna's humialutation.Hey Rotunta's I know a very good attorney if you need one!!!”
11. You're out of your mind said... on Jul 31, 2010 at 03:44AM
“To the last commenter saying that the Rotontas should sue the person who reported them: The Rotontas should thank their lucky stars that they lived on a street full of transplants and that they only had to deal with the PSPCA. Any other block and this would have ended years earlier with the Rotontas dragged out of their house and the police given grounds for a warrant even if they were only initially there to arrest the person who broke down the Rotonta's door. Save your good attorney and recommend a good psychiatrist who can treat Frances (and freaks like you who side with her) for actually thinking that their behavior is acceptable. Also, there's no proof any false report was filed, the PSPCA has not released the reason they went there so for all we know the report was legitimate. Personally I'm more inclined to believe the tipster for whatever they said as opposed to some freak who lived in feces and abused animals.”
12. Anonymous said... on Jul 31, 2010 at 06:07AM
“Where's Mayor Goode when you need him? In the 80's the city had no problems forcing residents of another notorious street to MOVE, can we get the police to drop a bomb on Earp St and take care of these crazy hoarders and their nutty supporters?”
13. Anonymous said... on Jul 31, 2010 at 10:07AM
““Maybe the person who filed the false report better pray that they don't get charged by Philly's finest or better yet get "Sued" by the Rotunta's for slander from their false report. Since the filing of a false report led to the Rontuna's humialutation.Hey Rotunta's I know a very good attorney if you need one!!!”
Who said anything about a false report? If the report alleged animal abuse I doubt the Rotontas can sue anybody since they are being charged with 134 counts of just that. You're obviously one of the dum-dum's that live on that street, if you have something to say to the Rotontas go tell em yourself.”
14. Anonymous said... on Jul 31, 2010 at 05:04PM
“Why isn't Richard Rotonta being charged as well? He lived in the house with Frances and is just as guilty.”
15. chaloots said... on Aug 2, 2010 at 04:01PM
“I resent Anonymous calling the people who have compassion for the woman (Franny) freaks and dumb-dumbs. Franny has a medical problem and is in no way a criminal. It is unfortunate for the neighbors who had to endure the bad air quality.
But Anonymous seems to have ice water running through her veins, and is a plain nasty person. The reason you remain anonymous is because you are a petty person, with a nasty attitude. I know you wouldn't mock those people if you weren't anonymous. And I hope if you filed false reports, that they do sue you.”
16. Terry said... on Aug 4, 2010 at 09:09AM
“what a joke...if i lived on that block i would have called in the false report a long time ago...i don't understand how the stench alone wasn't enough to get the warrant. the law needs to change. and i'm sorry, but fran is a crimina.l there is limit to how many pets you are aloud to keep in your home...it's an actuall law!! and those animals WERE being abused. i don't care if she has medical or menatal problems, a law is a law and she broke it. her so called "supporters" did her no favors keeping this to themselves...they are the ones who may have actually been able to do something about this. the whole situation is appalling”
17. Janice said... on Aug 5, 2010 at 04:05AM
“Some people say that peodophiles have a medical problem too. In my eyes they are criminals and so is anyone who breeds animals in this way and does not care for them properly. This is animal abuse and neglect and unfortunately the animal abuse laws in philly give people like this probation for their actions (if that). I wish people like Charloots would have the same compassion for these poor dogs rather then the people who perpetuate these criminal acts. They are criminals plain and simple! She wasn't rescuing stray animals on the street She was a known breeder at one time (which should be criminal as well), and was obviously just letting these poor dogs breed with eachother. In-breeding causes animals to have a host of medical problems which in many cases causes these poor dogs to be euthanized. There is no defense here.”