Pool filled with sharks found in basement of New York state home

Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Authorities in New York state said they found 10 sharks -- seven of them living -- in an above-ground pool in the basement of a home.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said environmental conservation officers served a search warrant Aug. 23 at a LaGrangeville home where investigators suspected residents were harboring illegal wildlife.

The DEC police, joined by the agency's Marine Resources personnel and staff from Wildlife Conservation Society's New York Aquarium and the Long Island Aquarium, discovered a 15-foot above-ground pool in the basement of the home. The pool contained seven live sandbar sharks, two dead leopard sharks and one dead hammerhead shark.

Aquarium staff captured the sharks, took blood, tagged them and transferred them to a box truck outfitted with plastic tanks, oxygen and climate control for safe transport of the ocean creatures.

The sharks were checked out by a Wildlife Conservation Society veterinarian before being transported to the Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead.

The investigation is ongoing, the DEC said.