Hell house: Pets live in torment among corpses

A Long Island mother and daughter were arrested yesterday after more than a dozen tortured dogs and cats were rescued from a filth-riddled Rockville Centre home that included more than two dozen decomposing animal remains, cops said.

Judge Anna Anzalone teared up as prosecutors showed pictures of a dog skull with tape still visible on it, as well as the squalor in the small house.

Faith Ross, 54, a secretary, and Francesca Maselli, 24, a nursing-home aide, pleaded not guilty and were being held at the Nassau County Jail on more than $75,000 bail each on three felony animal-cruelty counts.

Hempstead town officials were tipped to the wretched conditions inside the seemingly sedate Montauk Avenue home when someone complained about the smell coming from the house.

When officials arrived, the dogs could be heard barking and there was a smell of gas, so Animal Control as well as National Grid were called in.

Inside, authorities said, they found a nightmare: 15 dehydrated, trembling animals covered in urine and feces, amid two feet of trash on every piece of flooring, and the rotting corpses of dozens more.

There were six Chihuahuas, three dachshunds, an English bulldog, a Yorkshire terrier, a Shih Tzu, a boxer and two cats among the survivors. Another pooch, a collie mix, was taken directly to an animal hospital for emergency care.