image description — Snow, 18 months, is being cared for at the Sonsini Animal Shelter in Pittsfield.

31 Dogs Rescued From North Adams Property

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
04:07PM / Thursday, October 24, 2013Print Story | Email Story

This little guy was rescued after health inspectors and the animal control officer found he was living with 30 others in poor living conditions.

Update on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at 6:49 p.m.:

Police Director Michael Cozzaglio said the police are conferring with the district attorney's office on "numerous charges" that are pending with the owner. "We have 31 animal cruelty charges," he said.

Update on Friday, Oct. 25, at 6:59 p.m. with comments from Berkshire Humane Society: The Laboradors taken from an alleged puppy mill on Wednesday already have a stack of applicants looking to adopt them.

The Berkshire Humane Society took in nine of the mostly yellow Labs and says its has 30 adoption applications.

"We will contact those families for meet-ups as they are processed. Thank you everyone for your interest!," the society wrote on its Facebook page early Friday. ~~(We have a call into the shelter.)~~

"We've had 50-plus phone calls but we have a waiting list we go through," said Executive Director John Perreault later Friday afternoon.

Perreault said "probably within the Bekshires this is not typical" in getting so many animals at once. The good thing, he said, was that the shelter had the room when the call came in.

He described the Labs as all being in "pretty good shape" with some minor ear and skin infections. They were all bathed and vaccinated and two have already been neutered.

Some are outgoing, some are shy, but none have had any familiarity with leashes or collars.

"They have 8-month-old bodies but are more like 8-week-old puppies," said Perreault. "We have to pick them up and carry them to where we need them to go."

The dogs should all hopefully be going to their new homes by the end of next week.

The director said too many people think purebreds have no effect on pet overpopulation, but it's not true.

"One out of every three dogs in a shelter is a purebred," he said.

There are now more than 50 applications to adopt one of the nine Labs, but there are also two Chihuahuas, an Australian cattle dog and a black Lab mix, as well as five other dogs, at the shelter who need homes.

Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter Director Laurie Vilord said her shelter took a mother with 10 newborns and five 1- to 1 1/2-year-old dogs. She said the private, non-profit shelter will find foster families for the younger dogs until they are ready for adoption; the mom and puppies will be cared for at the shelter.

"We don't adopt out any animals that are not spayed or neutered," she said. Asked to comment if there were difficulties in taking in animals like this in an emergency, she responded: "That's what we do."

The shelter is need of donations of food and other supplies to care for the animals. You can donate through their wish list on Amazon.

Northern Berkshire Animal Rescue (also operating as Great DANE Rescue) is accepting donations through PayPal to aid in costs for sheltering and caring for two of the pregnant females that will give birth soon.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Local animal shelters have taken in 31 Labrador retrievers that were surrendered after the health inspector and animal control officer deemed the living conditions were unfit for animals.

Carrie Loholdt, the city's new animal control officer, joined two of the city's health inspectors on an investigation into complaints regarding a local dog breeder. Upon arriving at the residence, the three found 31 dogs — significantly more than expected — living in poor conditions.

The owner surrendered the dogs and volunteers swarmed North Adams to help find places for them. Kaila Drosehn, from the Northern Berkshire Cat Rescue, help coordinate and within an hour, volunteers from the Berkshire Humane Society and Eleanor Sonsini Animal Shelter were on scene.

"Our pound is only able to hold four dogs," Loholdt said on Thursday. "We were trying to find out where to take these dogs and both shelters came out with two vans each and crates."

A total of 10 puppies — some only a few hours old — were rescued and some of the other dogs were pregnant. Loholdt has the pregnant dogs and the shelters took the rest.

But, Loholdt said removing that many dogs was a daunting task. She went into the inspection only expecting to have to remove a few animals. On Thursday, she couldn't say enough about the volunteers who helped care for the dogs in less than four hours.

"It was an unbelievable day. It went so smoothly," Loholdt said. "I'm amazed. I would not have been able to do it alone."

More than a dozen people assisted, including two police officers, about seven volunteers from the shelters, Police Director Michael Cozzaglio and the city health inspectors.

Some of the dogs were taken directly to Keith Beebe at Wahconah Veterinary Hospital and others were seen by the vets at the other shelters. The dogs will all be treated for any health issues, spayed and neutered, and then put up for adoption.

"Every one will be adoptable after they get spayed and neutered," Loholdt said. "They are all going to be looking for homes."

The breeder voluntarily surrendered the dogs and Loholdt is still sifting through the investigation. She did not say whether the breeder would be facing any criminal charges.

Loholdt did not release the name of the breeder but the police log recorded that an officer was requested to assist the animal control officer and health inspector at Rick's Auto Sales. The property, next to the Time Warner offices on Hodges Cross Road, has had a Labradors for sale sign out front for years.

Tags: animal control, animal rescue, animal shelter, dogs, domestic animals,

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Berkshire DA Releases Victim's Name in Fatal Police Shooting

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
02:02PM / Friday, January 09, 2026

An image Biagio Kauvil posted to his Instagram page in happier days.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Biagio Kauvil's family had attempted to secure mental health resources for him before a well-being check on Wednesday that turned deadly.

On Friday, District Attorney Timothy Shugrue identified Kauvil, 27, as the man who was killed by police in a shooting incident at 53 Off South St. on Jan. 7. The New York resident, he said, was expressing "paranoid delusional" thoughts on social media, and in calls to the FBI's National Threat Operation Center and local 911 leading up to the incident.

"This is a horrific scene, and there is a deceased person, and it's a very sad situation. It was a mental health situation," Shugrue said during a press conference at his office around noon, right after he had spoken to Kauvil's family.

The DA elaborated on details provided the prior day, though there are still many questions unanswered, and the investigation remains active. He declined to respond to queries about the officers' decision to breach the bedroom door the man was sequestered behind, details about the approximately 46-second struggle that resulted in Kauvil being shot in the head, or if an officer would be charged for the fatality.

Police say Hinsdale Sgt. Dominick Crupi was shot in the hand by Kauvil, the bullet going through and striking Police Chief Shawn Boyne in his bulletproof vest. Crupi was also shot in the elbow by another officer. He was released from Albany, N.Y., Medical Center on Friday.

Shugrue said his office will not be releasing the names of the officers involved, although he acknowledged that they have been named on social media and elsewhere. He is "not even near" ready to say if an officer will be charged.

"I'm only here today because there's a lot of rumors going around the community. I wanted to straighten that out," he said, clarifying that Kauvil was not wanted by the FBI.

"… I'm sorry I can't give you more information than that, but I really want to be clear about what we know at this stage. But again, this may change once we — I haven't seen the ballistics, I haven't seen the autopsy report. There's a lot of stuff I don't have yet, but I just felt the public deserved to know as quickly as possible what transpired, especially in light of what's happening nationally."

This is the third police shooting in Berkshire County in nearly four years that involved someone in mental distress. Miguel Estrella, 22, was shot and killed on March 25, 2022, at the intersection of Woodbine Avenue and Onota Street in Pittsfield; Phillip Henault, 64, was shot and killed at his Hancock home on Sept. 9, 2023.

In both cases, investigators cleared the officers as both men had advanced on police armed with knives and threatening them.

Based on the investigation so far, there were no mental health co-responders on site. Shugrue doesn't believe the officers knew Kauvil was armed, and cited the lack of mental health resources in the community.

"I hope one thing that comes out of this is that we can talk more about legislative work that needs to be done. We can talk about resources that need to be given to mandate that we have mental health professionals working with police officers and working with individuals that are on the street that haven't been able to get the services that they need," he said.

"And this is unfortunate. I know, speaking to the family, they tried to get services for him. Unfortunately, there's not a lot available, and there's not a lot available in the Berkshires."

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