Chanteé Lans of ABC7 Eyewitness News didn’t sugarcoat what officials and rescuers walked into in Rocky Point. She described a Suffolk County home “completely overrun” by rats that were being kept as pets, with the animals running through the rooms and even inside the walls.
Jodi Goldberg of FOX 5 New York told viewers the same scene was enough to make people “cringe,” and she warned some might find the video disturbing. Between the two reports, the picture is clear: this wasn’t one or two cages of pet rats. This was a house where the rats had basically taken over.
Chanteé Lans said volunteers believe at least 300 domesticated rats were inside, and that 100 to 200 could be in the walls alone.
Jodi Goldberg reported investigators estimated a much larger number – hundreds, possibly close to a thousand – showing how hard it is to get an exact count when animals are spilling out of cabinets, crawling through openings, and disappearing into the structure.
Either way, it’s a massive hoarding case, and now the humans left standing are trying to figure out what comes next for the animals, and what this means for the people who lived there.
A House Where The Walls Moved
Chanteé Lans, reporting live from Rocky Point, said the rats were everywhere. She described them spilling out of kitchen cabinets and overrunning “every inch” of the floor.
In her report, volunteers believed the worst part wasn’t even the visible rats. It was the ones inside the walls – hundreds of them – hidden but still living, breeding, and pushing the problem deeper into the home.
Jodi Goldberg described the same thing in vivid terms, pointing out holes and openings where rats were ripping through walls, raiding cabinets, and living “everywhere.” She said the home was now condemned, and the video footage made it easy to understand why.
When you hear “pet rats,” some people picture a small, clean enclosure and a couple friendly animals that sit on a shoulder. What Lans and Goldberg are describing is the total opposite: uncontrolled numbers, damaged rooms, and conditions that sound more like an infestation than a pet setup.
And that’s where the emotional whiplash hits. These weren’t wild rats that slipped in from outside. According to both reports, they were domesticated rats that ended up in a nightmare.
Volunteers Walked Into A Biohazard
Chanteé Lans leaned heavily on the voices of the people actually inside the house, doing the hardest work. She quoted Frankie Floridia, the president of Strong Island Animal Rescue, who called it “a disaster inside.” Floridia told Lans it was hard to breathe, and that volunteers needed masks and gloves because it was such a bad situation.
That detail matters, because it tells you this wasn’t just messy. It was unsafe.
Lans also brought in Kristin Stephens, a volunteer and veterinary tech, and her description is the kind of thing that sticks in your head.
Stephens told Lans many rats were injured, with “huge wounds,” and she described animals with eyes “coming out,” big abscesses, and even a few that were going septic.
Jodi Goldberg added more context about the on-the-ground process. She described volunteers masking up and moving room to room, separating male rats from female rats to stop the breeding, and checking which animals were sick.
Goldberg said that by midday Monday, about 200 rats had been removed. That number lines up with what Lans reported from inside the house: Floridia told her they had about 150 contained in separate containers – males, females, and sick animals – while still believing another 100 to 200 remained in the walls.
One of the most frustrating parts of stories like this is the feeling that even heroic effort doesn’t put a real dent in the problem at first. You remove dozens, then you find dozens more. You think you’re done with one room, then you see movement behind a wall.
That’s not a normal “rescue.” That’s triage in a moving, living maze.
What Police Say They Found And Why An Arrest Followed
Chanteé Lans reported police arrested the 48-year-old homeowner, and she said the home was condemned. She also said the homeowner received sanitation violations, with an estimated total of 300 to 500 domesticated rats believed to be inside the house.
Jodi Goldberg went further on the legal side. She reported, citing court documents, that the homeowner was Lori Curley and that she faced charges including animal neglect and endangering the welfare of a child.
Goldberg said Suffolk County Police found Curley’s three-year-old grandson inside the home wearing a diaper, walking around as feces covered the floors. She also described the house as riddled with urine and feces, and she noted there were deceased animals inside as well.
Those details are why this story jumps from “gross” to “serious.” When a child is inside a condemned home with animals running through waste, it stops being a strange lifestyle choice and becomes a public safety situation.
Goldberg also included a quote that sounded like a volunteer trying to hold onto a shred of empathy. She said Strong Island Animal Rescue believed the situation likely started small, and that someone may have meant well before it spiraled out of control.
That kind of comment doesn’t excuse what happened, but it does hint at something people don’t like talking about: hoarding can be driven by deeper issues, and it often grows quietly until it suddenly can’t be hidden anymore.
Why The Numbers Exploded So Fast
Both reports hit the same basic truth: rats reproduce fast, and if you don’t control breeding, you don’t control anything.
Chanteé Lans quoted Kristin Stephens saying “everybody knows rodents reproduce very, very quickly.” Stephens told Lans she personally felt this could have been avoided by simply separating the animals – keeping males with males and females with females – before the population exploded.
Jodi Goldberg echoed that point in a simpler, scarier way. She said experts warn rats can breed every couple of weeks and can get pregnant again within days. That’s not a slow-growing problem. That’s a runaway train.
And once the numbers get high enough, the living conditions crash fast. Food runs out. Space disappears. Fighting increases. Injuries pile up. Disease spreads. Then you get the kind of medical horrors Stephens described – wounds, abscesses, infections, and animals slipping into septic conditions.
Lans added another troubling detail: volunteers found rat poison in the basement. Stephens told Lans they had seen some rats with blood coming from the nose, which she said is what happens when you poison rats.
That suggests panic and desperation somewhere in the story. Maybe someone tried to stop the problem with poison after it was already out of control, which only makes the suffering worse and makes rescue harder.
It’s the kind of spiral where every “solution” creates a new disaster.
The Cleanup Is A Race Against Time
Chanteé Lans said neighbors told her they didn’t see or smell anything unusual, meaning the situation seemed contained to the home – at least until it wasn’t.
Jodi Goldberg reported the same basic idea from the neighborhood: people said there was almost no sign of the infestation, maybe just the occasional rat. One neighbor told her they felt relieved it was being handled, but also nervous that rats could escape during the removal.
That fear makes sense. When you start pulling animals out of walls and opening up rooms, you can accidentally create exits.
Goldberg described the rescue effort as a race against the clock, and not just because of breeding. It’s also because the longer the operation drags on, the more expensive it gets, and the more burned out volunteers become.
Chanteé Lans said volunteers were asking for foster homes and monetary donations to help with the rodents’ healthcare. Jodi Goldberg also said Strong Island Animal Rescue expected the removal and care effort could cost thousands, and she urged the public to step up to foster and adopt.
This is the part of these stories that quietly stings. The rescue groups didn’t create the problem, but they inherit it. They take the emotional hit, the financial hit, and the logistics nightmare, because if they don’t, nobody else will.
And the rats – domesticated, dependent animals – don’t get to vote on any of it. They just exist in the conditions humans created, and then they wait for a stranger in gloves and a mask to decide whether they can be saved.
If there’s any “glimmer of hope,” it’s the one Frankie Floridia gave Chanteé Lans: the situation is heartbreaking, but rescuers believe they can get these animals to safety. The hard truth is that safety won’t come from a single heroic day – it’ll come from weeks of fostering, vet care, and people willing to take responsibility for animals most folks are afraid to even look at.
Ed spent his childhood in the backwoods of Maine, where harsh winters taught him the value of survival skills. With a background in bushcraft and off-grid living, Ed has honed his expertise in fire-making, hunting, and wild foraging. He writes from personal experience, sharing practical tips and hands-on techniques to thrive in any outdoor environment. Whether it’s primitive camping or full-scale survival, Ed’s advice is grounded in real-life challenges.
