{"id":136645,"date":"2026-02-17T22:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136645\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T22:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T22:02:07","slug":"tortured-dogs-rescued-by-police-from-nyc-apartment-nursed-back-to-health-with-7-adorable-pups-born-in-rescuers-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/136645\/","title":{"rendered":"Tortured dogs rescued by police from NYC apartment nursed back to health \u2013 with 7 adorable pups born in rescuers\u2019 care"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a doggone miracle!<\/p>\n

More than a half-dozen tortured, starving dogs saved by cops from a Bronx apartment building<\/a> last summer \u2013 and a litter of pups born in the aftermath \u2013 were nursed back to health by rescuers at a new upstate rehab center for abused pooches, The Post has learned.<\/p>\n

More than a half-dozen tortured, starving dogs (like Jellyfish, above) saved by cops from a Bronx apartment building last summer were nursed back to health by rescuers. ASPCA<\/p>\n

The family of nine \u201cterrier-types\u201d were rescued by cops from a decrepit apartment in the Belmont section of the Bronx after responding to neighbors\u2019 frantic calls for help last August \u2013 and found the underweight animals lacked access to food, water and even fresh air.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dogs were found to have dirty, foul-smelling hair coats and were experiencing dehydration, inflammation of the paw pads, and conjunctivitis,\u201d a rep for the local ASPCA detailed.<\/p>\n

Veterinary forensic staff heartbreakingly also found three dogs with damage to their spinal cord caused by \u201cblunt force trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nine \u201cterrier-type\u201d dogs were rescued by cops last August from a decrepit apartment in the Belmont section of the Bronx. ASPCA<\/p>\n

Owner Higee Mercer Wally, 27, was arrested on Aug. 4 and charged on nine counts of animal cruelty, including failure to provide proper food and water to the abused pups.<\/p>\n

The alleged beatings had been ongoing for at least a week before a breakthrough surveillance video<\/a> caught the creep, according to a Post review of 311 calls documenting the horror.<\/p>\n

Additional footage also allegedly depicted Mercer Wally \u201cslamming a dog to the ground and striking it multiple times as the dog was heard crying,\u201d police said.<\/p>\n

The alleged abuse had been ongoing for at least a week before a breakthrough surveillance video led to the owner\u2019s arrest. ASPCA<\/p>\n

Despite the troubling conditions, one tough mama mutt \u2013 affectionately named Jellyfish by ASPCA rescuers \u2013 gave birth to \u201cseven healthy puppies\u201d at the nonprofit\u2019s Manhattan site on Aug. 14, a rep said.<\/p>\n

The dogs were then transferred in October to the ASPCA\u2019s new Recovery & Rehabilitation Center<\/a> in upstate New York, which provides \u201cspecialized\u201d support to rescued pups through a partnership with the NYPD.<\/p>\n

The Pawling center \u2014 which opened in December \u2014 also provided supplemental bottle feeding to the pups, since Jellyfish wasn\u2019t producing enough milk, staff said.<\/p>\n

Scallop, one of the rescued dogs, plays with a new toy at the ASPCA\u2019s Recovery & Rehabilitation center. ASPCA<\/p>\n

All 16 dogs \u2014 named after sea creatures, like Scampi, Calamari and Urchin \u2014 also received exposure to unfamiliar people, other mutts and new toys in order to prepare them for life in a new home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the dogs continued to demonstrate some fear and displayed signs of stress, requiring more specialized behavioral support to address their fear of new people and new places,\u201d a rep said, adding the family made \u201csignificant progress\u201d over time.<\/p>\n

To date, 11 of the dogs have been adopted \u2014 including Jellyfish, who was renamed Chloe by her new owner. The five remaining pups are still available for adoption.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of the dogs from this case required specialized medical and behavioral treatment to help them heal and overcome their fear of new people and environments: The ASPCA Recovery & Rehabilitation Center is designed with that kind of healing in mind,\u201d Gail Hughes\u2011Morey, vice president of the center, told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach day,\u00a0we saw small but powerful changes in the dogs from this case\u00a0as they became more curious, brave, and playful \u2014 and ultimately, ready to live as pets in loving homes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a doggone miracle! More than a half-dozen tortured, starving dogs saved by cops from a Bronx apartment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19800,1457,57,9,197,56,63,65,64,103,129,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-136645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-animal-rescue","9":"tag-animals","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city-life","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-nypd","18":"tag-the-bronx","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}