Sunday, August 26, 2018

If I were ‘Queen for a Day’ in Hamilton Township


Hoo-boy!  Every animal advocate’s dream: being in charge, even if for only a day, in Hamilton Township.  There, the animal shelter -- significantly and expensively expanded and reportedly greatly improved a couple years ago -- is now the center of a firestorm over how animals  are treated -- or should I say “mistreated”? 

Yes, “mistreated.”  And that’s putting it mildly.  (Just review the deficiencies and malpractices detailed in the state inspectors’ report.)  As queen for a (work)day, with power to say how the shelter will be run, I would convene all shelter employees and volunteers and do the following:  
     
1 -- acquaint them with the “Five Freedoms”  -- which “speak to the fundamental needs of animals that remain constant regardless of setting,” according to the Assn. of Shelter Veterinarians.  Therefore, animal shelters are one setting where the Five Freedoms should be known and observed.

2 -- acquaint them with the state health department’s annual I & D (Intake and Disposition) survey, with specifics about animals entering a shelter and what happens to each one, provided by shelter reps.

It should be noted that in the 2014 edition of this survey, HTAS reported killing a horrifying number of animals, especially cats.  (While 52 dogs (14%) were killed that year, 302, or 42% of the 716 cats admitted to the shelter were killed during the same period.)  Apparently, today's numbers have not significantly dropped.  

The I & D survey lists all responding shelters by county, so it’s painfully easy to see how Hamilton Twp. figures compared with other county shelters -- and then to wonder how those sickening high numbers were reached.

Buster      (file pic) 
Were strays killed if not claimed and/or killed before the seven-day hold period ended?  Were feral, or community, cats killed because they were feral, or community, cats?  How about animals needing medical attention; were they killed instead? 

These days, more and more animal shelters concentrate on “live releases,” instead of animals euthanized, and subscribe to a no-kill philosophy. Has Hamilton Twp. heard of either concept?  And if Y, why do they seem to have been ignored?  Who took the animal shelter in a different -- cruel and inhumane -- direction? 

3 -- moderate a presentation on Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) by the Animal Protection League of NJ (http://aplnj.org/feral-cat-advocacy/), the statewide organization that has advocated for animals for 35 years.  Its Project TNR is New Jersey’s central resource for information on community cats and Trap-Neuter-Return.

4 -- acquaint them with the detailed and definitive “Guidelines for Standards of Care in Animal Shelters” produced in 2010 by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians for both shelter facilities and care of shelter animals.

5 -- plan for the immediate future: (a) assure that anyone in a supervisory position at HTAS has preparatory training for that role; (b) establish dates for training on evaluating staff and volunteer  job performance; (c) list short-  and longer-range changes to be made, with completion dates.  

                                   Catster pic
Everything outlined here so far is a new and apparently needed kind of “brainwashing” at HTAS.  What?  You say all this can’t be done in a day?   You’re right of course.  I can hope only that others, with their own strong commitment to the animals there, will pick up where I leave off after my day as Queen.  

I’ll be back after Labor Day weekend, but meanwhile, readers, please keep up with media coverage of the shelter, write letters to the editor and/or talk up the suggestions here.  Make sure the Hamilton Twp. council members who first voiced concern about the shelter know about these options and resources.

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