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.
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| 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.
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| 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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