NEW LONDON, Conn. — For the dogs at the New London animal shelter, the Fourth of July was anything but fun.
"For an animal that doesn't understand what's going on, it must've been terrifying," said Robert Yuchniuk, the Waterford-East Lyme animal control officer.
Fireworks are scary enough for animals but it appears dozens of them were set off right next to the dogs.
Yuchniuk said he was horrified the next morning when he found firework debris all around the building, on the roof, and even inside the kennels where the dogs are held.
"The callousness and the cruelty to light off fireworks right here. And especially once they started hitting that building. Maybe the first one was a mistake but everyone they fired after that they knew what was going on. And you can hear the dogs barking and I'm sure they were going crazy," he said.
Fortunately, none of the 12 dogs there that night were hurt. But for many who were heartbroken to hear of the incident, it's not much consolation.
"I just can't understand the cruelty that anybody could do that to innocent animals," said Elizabeth Hilbert of Mystic. "They couldn't go anywhere they couldn't get away from it. It was just awful," she said.
"It's a very sad thing when a human being will do things to antagonize an animal that's defenseless and caged," said Stephen Krijger of New London.
The animal shelter is located inside Bates Woods Park. Yuchniuk said police did respond there for reports of fireworks that night, but didn't see anyone.
He said, there are no surveillance cameras at the park or the shelter, but hopes that will change soon.
His Facebook post about the incident received hundreds of comments, many of them offering to donate to purchase cameras.
"Maybe we can get the ball rolling and do some fundraising and get some cameras down here and prevent stuff like this in the future," Yuchniuk said.
He's also hoping whoever did this comes forward.
"The person was not here by themselves lighting off fireworks, there were other people here. I'm hoping one of those people has a conscience and realizes the damage that they did or they could've done," Yuchniuk said.
If you have any information on who was setting off the fireworks, you're asked to call New London police.
Gaby Molina is a reporter and anchor at FOX61 News. She can be reached at mmolina@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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