Samantha Boyd & Neal Wechsler: headed for catastrophe at least since 2021
NORTHPORT, New York––Charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty and endangering the welfare of a vulnerable elderly person, Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab Facility operator Samantha Boyd, 57, and her partner Neal Wechsler, 61, in early October 2025 made the top of news broadcasts and screaming print headlines all over the Long Island and greater New York City area.
Authorities with multiple agencies pulled 206 animals and a 95-year-old woman believed to be Boyd’s mother from Boyd’s allegedly feces-and-debris-strewn home at 995 Fort Salonga Road, Northport.
But that was just the denouement of a long decline and fall.
Beekeepers
Samantha Boyd, a longtime wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, happened also to be a certified veterinary technician at the VCA Veterinary Referral & Emergency Center of Westbury, 51 miles west of her home.
Wechsler, originally from Monitcello, New York, but on Long Island for reportedly more than 30 years, was a well-known architect turned beekeeper.
VCA web postings and periodicals featured Samantha Boyd for years.
Amy Nicole Tangel, writing for the web magazine The Human Interest Story, profiled both Samantha Boyd and Neal Wechsler in 2021, making Boyd one of the best-known animal rescuers on Long Island, and making both of them two of the best-known beekeepers.
Their BeeWitched honey brand, Tangel indicated, sold “at local farmers’ markets across Suffolk County,” helped to fund Samantha Boyd’s wildlife rescue work.
“300 babies” plus “30 pet rescues”
“In 2020,” Tangel recounted, “Samantha’s Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab Facility rescued 183 babies, and she said she has already rescued more than 300 in the first half of 2021 alone,” including “squirrels, opossums, rabbits, chipmunks, and little baby birds such as pigeons,” in addition to “30 pet rescues of her own, taking in any pets she can in need of a home.”
Added Tangel, “Samantha said Northport was much more rural when she was growing up with bigger animals such as horses and goats, but even though it is very developed now a lot of wildlife still exists in the area. Living with close access to a very wooded area near the Makamah Nature Preserve in Fort Salonga, Samantha said provides her a perfect location with deer, fox, and opossums to release most of her wildlife rescues.”
The Human Interest Story profile was in itself a distant early warning of what would follow, citing a doubling workload on top of already busy lives.
Angel’s Gate failed in the same vicinity
The Samantha Boyd/Neal Wescsler meltdown was neither locally unprecedented, nor without years of warnings made public on Facebook by Samantha Boyd herself, writing as “Samantha Bee Kind” for an audience of 539 “Facebook friends.”
Samantha Boyd’s home was just four miles from 18 Josephine Lane, Fort Salonga, where a similar situation evolved from 1993 to 2007 at an “animal hospice” called Angel’s Gate, run from a comparable property by a former nurse named Susan Marino.
Unlike Marino, who pretended all was well except for complaints from fussy neighbors until finally it obviously was not, Samantha Boyd issued hints of impending burnout almost every summer since 2020.
“Sleeping only two hours a night”
“I just turned 57 and started rehabbing at 8,” Samantha Boyd posted on March 19, 2025, having previously told Tangel that she began at age six.
“Since Covid it’s been crazy and I’ve done hundreds [of wildlife rescues] each year. I’ve gone months only sleeping 2 hours a night. I just can’t do that right now,” Samantha Boyd said.
“When I start up again,” Samantha Boyd pledged, “I’m going to put limits. But I will enjoy this time off to just take care of my own family and myself.”
Later the same day, Samantha Boyd added, “I always saved everything and had a house full of my own animals. I went to college to be a psychologist, but left before graduation and went back to school for a vet tech degree and have been working full time in emergency hospitals ever since.”
“Earned right to slow down a bit”
Samantha Boyd claimed then to “have earned the right to slow down a bit, and choose what and when we help,” adding, “I just wish more of the younger generation would step up and help.”
“Samantha Bee Kind” apparently debuted on Facebook on October 4, 2016, introducing herself as a licensed veterinary technician, “witch, reiki master (referring to a traditional Japanese healing method), psychic medium, animal rescuer, wildlife rehabilitator.”
Fumed a “Rehabber rant!” from “Samantha Bee Kind” on June 13, 2020, that probably most animal rescuers could identify with, “If you are going to call a wildlife rehabber, please be willing to transport the animal you are calling about. Don’t call and expect me to drive to your home to ‘capture’ the baby.
“Feeding babies nonstop”
“I am feeding babies nonstop,” Samantha Boyd testified. “I don’t have time to drive around Long Island. Plus all money for the care of these babies comes out of my pocket. A few very kind people have donated money and supplies, but trust me, only about 2% of people give anything.
“I don’t mind, I’ll give my last penny to help an animal, but don’t try to make me feel guilty because I won’t drive to you. If you want to help an animal, then be willing to get it help. I will gladly tell you how to safely pick it up and transport it.
“Sorry,” Samantha Boyd finished. “I just hate it when people are like ‘I guess it will die if you don’t come.’ I don’t need the guilt. I have enough to worry about keeping all the animals healthy and able to be released.”
31 baby squirrels was already too many
None of these were new complaints. But the “Samantha Bee Kind” posting of October 9, 2020 looked like just ordinary fundraising:
“Please if you can donate I’d appreciate it. I have 31 baby squirrels.. it cost roughly $100 a squirrel, from baby to release. Thank you.”
The warning hint was the number of baby squirrels on hand. While squirrels on Long Island tend to produce both spring and fall litters, 31 baby squirrels would be an abnormally heavy workload for any one individual.
“Samantha Bee Kind” on June 12, 2021 expanded on her message of October 9, 2020 by posting “a list of wildlife rehabbers on Long Island. Please be aware,” she continued, “we are all volunteers doing this. We get no financial help, and we give up all our personal time, and money, to save animals. Please leave us messages if we don’t answer the phone––we are busy saving lives. And if you can give a donation it helps us save more lives. Thank you.”
Increasingly stressed
Again Samantha Boyd expanded on her previous message, this time just over a year later.
Her June 21, 2022 posting began, “FYI IF YOU NEED AN ANIMAL REHABBER/RESCUER,” starting off with reasonable and practical advice, but gradually hinting more and more that she had more animals at hand than she could look after.
“Please text us,” Samantha Boyd asked. “We don’t have time to talk on the phone. I can have 20 people a night contact me. If you text me, I can prioritize who I’m dealing with first. A baby covered in maggots needs me before a healthy baby bunny.
“If you do text, send a photo,” Samantha Boyd advised. “I need to judge the condition and age of the animal. With many animals (especially birds), they can look big but still be babies. A photo helps me determine if it needs help.
(VCA Veterinary Referral & Emergency Center of Westbury photo)
“Be patient! I will answer you.”
“Be patient! I will answer you. But like all other rescuers I know, I work full time, have a family and a houseful of my own animals. Plus I’m dealing with dozens of wildlife babies. It may take me some time. If I think it’s critical I’ll get back to you sooner. Remember this is all volunteer. Rehabbers/rescues do this because they love animals and want to help them. We are not paid. We have no time off from it. Please be patient.
“Be grateful,” Samantha Boyd continued. “It goes a long way when someone says thanks. I don’t have to help you. If you can donate a few dollars, or some food or supplies, it helps a lot. This all comes out of our own pockets.
“Forgive us if we are grouchy. We may have just had a baby we’ve been trying to save die in our hands. We may have answered the same question a dozen times today. We may have family/work issues. Be kind. We are doing our best.”
(vcavoice.com photo)
“Exhausted, mentally & physically”
Most animal rescuers could identify with all of that, but quite a few more than ever admit it are also stressing themselves by taking on too much, bringing themselves close to the breaking point that Samantha Boyd eventually reached, whether then or earlier or not until years later.
Only ten days later, on July 31, 2022, “Samantha Bee Kind” reiterated that, “Just an FYI.
“As a wildlife rehabber/ rescuer I get tagged multiple times a day, along with a few others. We can only do so much. We are all full. Few have any room at this point. We are also exhausted, mentally and physically, from rescue.
“Please we need more people, more rescues, more foster homes. The same handful of people can’t save all the lives of all animals on Long Island that need saving. If you want to help save animal lives, please be willing to do more. We can’t do more than what we already do.”
Resolutions crumbled
Apparently recognizing her own symptoms of burnout, “Samantha Bee Kind” did briefly try to back off during the spring 2023 wildlife baby season.
But on July 3, 2023, she wrote, “So for my first day of not taking in any wildlife. I added seven babies. Let’s hope I do better tomorrow.
“Hi friends. I am at capacity with wildlife and won’t be taking anything else until some leave. Sorry.”
Again her resolution crumbled.
On July 31, 2023, “Samantha Bee Kind” updated, “FYI, I won’t be taking any more wildlife for a bit. I have way too many tiny pink babies. No more time to feed more. Please call another rehabber if you need help. In a few weeks when I can space out feedings I’ll be able to take more.”
Then the warnings stopped, at least on that social media account.
Humane Long Island rehabber complained
Samantha Boyd, also known as “Samantha Bee Kind,” apparently quit posting to social media herself, but became a focus of social media buzz after the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office dispatched a Biological, Environmental & Animal Safety Team to the Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab Facility.
Reported Corey Kilgannon for The New York Times, “John Di Leonardo, a wildlife rehabilitator who runs a rescue and advocacy nonprofit, Humane Long Island, said it was his complaint that got the authorities to respond. He said he grew suspicious after seeing online postings by Boyd about rescued animals she was not licensed to keep, like crows and mallard ducks.
“Upon stopping by the home, he said, ‘It smelled like a hoarder house. There were red flags all over, lots of clutter and wildlife on the property.’
“During the house search,” Kilgannon continued, “Di Leonardo helped the authorities remove the animals for placement with rescue groups.
“Feces & garbage everywhere”
“Inside, Di Leonardo said, ‘There was feces and garbage everywhere, with many of the animals cooped up in cages in their own filth without food or water.’
“He said many of the animals had illnesses including bone and staph infections. For example, he said, a Pekin duck with a bone infection had to be euthanized and another duck was drained of two pounds of fluid from an infection.”
The roster of animals, reported Mirna Alsharif and Cristian Santana for NBC New York, “included roosters, squirrels, ducks, pigeons, quail, rabbits, crows, starlings, geese, chipmunks, doves, chickens, hamsters, ferrets, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, voles, flying squirrels, parakeets, parrots, cockatoos, chinchillas, cats, tortoises, dogs, turkeys, and other species.
Suffolk County district attorney Raymond Tierney confirmed that the animals were found amid “piles of waste and filth, wall-to-wall debris, garbage, and household waste, making certain areas impassable.”
The 95-year-old woman
Resumed Kilgannon, “The authorities did not name the older woman found at her house, but property records indicate that an Elsie Boyd, 95, lived with Samantha Boyd. Records show that Elsie Boyd immigrated to the United States from England in 1955 along with her now-deceased husband, Reginald Boyd, who served in the British armed forces.”
Reginald Boyd died in Suffolk County at age 72 on September 26, 2000.
Wrote Kilgannon, “The authorities removed the 95-year-old woman from the home, said Tania Lopez, a spokeswoman for the district attorney. She declined to release other details for the sake of privacy.”
Joining the Biological, Environmental, and Animal Safety Team at the site, according to Greater Long Island, were the “Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, Suffolk County police, Suffolk County Department of Social Services, the Town of Huntington, and a coalition of rescue groups including Humane Long Island, the Evelyn Alexander Wildlife Rescue Center, the Sweetbriar Nature Center, the Save the Animals Rescue Foundation, Long Island Rabbit Rescue, Strong Island Animal Rescue, Turtle Rescue of the Hamptons, and the Wildlife Center of Long Island.”
(Facebook photo)
Angel’s Gate fiasco forgotten
No mention appears to have been made yet of the disposition and care of the beehives on the property.
Nor do the parallels with the nearby Angel’s Gate fiasco seem to be well-remembered.
Angel’s Gate founder Susan Marino in 1993 turned her seven-room home on 1.3 acres in Fort Solonga into a no-kill facility purportedly providing care-for-life for terminally ill animals whose people could no longer look after them.
Angel’s Gate won endorsements from television talk show host Oprah Winfrey. Marino spoke often to radio shows and national humane conferences, and produced a 2005 book, Getting Lucky, co-authored by longtime Long Island Newsday columnist Denise Flaim.
But by then Angel’s Gate housed 150 animals and was the subject of frequent complaints from neighbors about noise, odors, and violations of neighborhood parking rules by visitors and volunteers.
Angel’s Gate moved before final collapse
Eventually the local zoning code was rewritten to exclude Angel’s Gate, but the amended zoning rules were apparently not enforced against the Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab Facility.
The Smithtown Town Court on July 10, 2007 fined Angel’s Gate $800 for noise violations.
Relocating to rural Delhi, New York, four hours’ drive north, Marino and Angel’s Gate lost many former volunteers and donors.
Simultaneously Marino began taking in problematic pit bulls from “rescuers” who had obtained them from Animal Care & Control of New York City.
More than eight years of investigation and three years of litigation over the Delhi premises culminated with the legal dissolution of Angel’s Gate, which had at peak taken in as much as $1.3 million in donations and bequests per year, on October 2, 2015 by Otsego County Court Judge John F. Lambert.
(See Court finally puts Angel’s Gate out of its misery.)
(Beth Clifton collage)
Repository for NYC horse manure
Ironically, the whole Fort Salonga area, originally named Fresh Pond, was for several decades in the mid-19th century used as a repository for horse manure barged from the streets of New York City.
As such, Fort Salonga became notorious for animal odors more than a century before either Angel’s Gate or the Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab Facility existed.
(Daniel Leventhal photo)
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Wildlife rehab is tough. The animals don’t pay anything on their bills. I worked with a wildlife rehabber for several years. Her most expensive animal was probably a sandhill crane with a broken wing. Although I radiographed it, I sent it to an orthopedic surgeon for surgical repair. The wing did heal and the bird was released about six months later. Release was delayed due to pieces of dead bone coming out. Just feeding this bird was outrageously expensive. I was constantly amazed at how easily my friend handled wild animals. There needs to be some type of funding for wildlife rehabbers.
I was struck with the number of animal rescue groups that came to help these animals
when the situation had deteriorated to an extreme degree.
What level of awareness did they have as the problem evolved–
a staggering number of animals and an overwhelmed caretaker who had lost
some connection with reality?
These are groups working to help animals and especially wildlife.
Do they talk to one another on an ongoing basis?
Do they share their struggles?
Are they as concerned about each other as they are about the animals?
What specific help do they offer to people engaged in the same work?
This poor lady showed signs of decline and being in over her head for years but obviously felt like she couldn’t reach out for help for the exact reason that this situation ended in. Does anyone really think she wanted animals to suffer and was impervious to their wellbeing? I’m not condoning what happened to the creatures but I’m also very very sorry for her.
Rescues, sanctuaries and rehabbers don’t do what they do because they don’t care; on the contrary. And when they send out messages, coded or otherwise, of need, a positive response is what they need and what they’re asking for.
Yes, many more caring people need to get educated and get involved in these labors of love.
It does not have to come to this. But it can’t solve itself.
Sharing with gratitude, hope, and Prayers.
Rescue groups need to have some oversight. This is evidently not a popular point of view but without oversight the line between rescue and hoarding can blur and animals have to endure years of suffering in isolation, starvation, illness and neglect. A slow death rather than euthanasia.
Supposedly, because Samantha Boyd was licensed as a wildlife rehabilitator by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, her Safe Haven Wildlife Rehab Facility should have had significantly more oversight than a dog-and-cat rescue, which in New York state have none. Obviously, though, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation did not actually exercise oversight responsibility to the extent of noticing what to neighbors and passers-by was reportedly evident even from the street for quite some time.
I don’t think anyone thinks rescue groups need to have no oversight. No one is suggesting that. I can’t speak for others who have commented, but it would just be nice if a person knew that they could call on their fellow rescuers if they knew they were getting in over their head without the threat of getting slandered and gossiped about or even having the authorities called on them. I am sure there ARE some people who would step up and quietly help, but let’s be real- as animal people, we are known to be misanthropic and bitter finger-pointers. This happens over and over and over to people who love animals.
Agreed, Renee, but another phenomenon we have seen often over the years, for example in the Angel’s Gate case, is that rescuers trying to help rescuers tend to become enablers unless there is some outside agency oversight.
So many start out with good intentions and end up harming the animals in the end. It’s always sad to see animals who need rescuing from their rescuers. I’m sure it’s even more difficult for wildlife rehabbers as they are not as plentiful as domestic animal rescuers and may not have the extensive network to seek help; however, it does appear that sufficient help responded to this one.