Valley Stream native sings his love of animals

Romeo the calf was struggling to survive last year. His hip was dislocated, and he often suffered from seizures.

“Anything that could go wrong went wrong,” said veterinary technician Rhea Gardner, who was considering euthanizing the young bull.

But Romeo’s luck changed when Valley Stream native Chris Ameruoso and his wife, Daniela, decided to get involved. The Ameruosos, who live in Los Angeles, visited Romeo at Gardner’s animal sanctuary in Acton, Calif., and Chris started playing the blues on guitar for Romeo, hoping that he would find it soothing.

It seemed to work, according to Gardner. “Romeo would just close his eyes and go to sleep,” she said.

The next day, Romeo’s hip was back in its socket, and he never had another seizure, Gardner said. “He’s the magic music man,” she said of 54-year-old Ameruoso.

Since then, he has driven 45 minutes north of Los Angles to the animal sanctuary at least once a week to perform for the nearly 70 animals there, including raccoons, horses, donkeys, snakes, reptiles, emus and opossums.

“They’re living their life out at a nice ranch, and I get to play music for them,” Ameruoso said.

When he first started playing music, not all of the animals appreciated it, Gardner said, but they learned to like it. “The ones that were turned off by it at first were like, ‘Oh, this is kind of fun,’” she said, adding that the raccoons wanted to play with Ameruoso’s guitar.

His biggest fan, however, is Hazel the donkey. He said that if he were performing near any of the other animals, Hazel would get mad. So now, when he goes to the animal sanctuary, he has to play for Hazel in a private area.

“She’s actually totally and completely in love with him,” Gardner said.

On July 28, Ameruoso posted a video on Facebook showing Hazel nuzzling against him as he sang the blues. “This brought me to tears today,” he captioned the video. “Every living creature feels and has moments of joy, just like we do.”

Valley Streamer Gena Rositano shared the video with the Valley Stream News Facebook group, and it went viral. It has since logged almost 6 million views. “Please take a second to see how this former Valley Streamer makes a difference to these beautiful beings,” she wrote on Aug. 13.

Ameruoso started playing guitar when he was 8 years old. At the time, he said, he was the lead guitarist and lead vocalist for the rock band he started with his brothers. The band, Ameruoso, gained popularity in his neighborhood.

“He lived around the corner from me,” Rositano said. “We used to go down to his basement and listen to Chris and his brothers play music.”

Rositano described Ameruoso as “always a little wild, always sweet, always talented and always all the beautiful things he still is.”

Ameruoso has long had a passion for animals. After graduating from Central High School in 1982, he moved to Los Angeles, where he pursued a career in photography. He became successful with a syndicated feature of celebrities with their pets for InTouch, Us Weekly and OK! magazines. He also photographed the dogs that helped recover victims of the Sept. 11 attacks. The photos were featured in New York magazine. Now he shoots at-home features of celebrities, he said.

“I’ve had a pretty extensive career, and I’m pretty proud of that,” he said.

Ameruoso combined his love of music, animals and photography when he recently started filming himself singing to the animals. “A lot of the animals love it, and I wanted to start capturing those moments,” he said.

Since the video of Hazel was posted, Ameruoso said, other animal sanctuaries have asked him whether he would sing to their animals. He said he accepted a few of their offers.