Posted on 11/15/2004 6:47:38 AM PST by Calpernia
Guard dogs on commercial properties would be outlawed, towns could not legally stop people from feeding feral cats and a medical diagnosis would be required to euthanize an animal.
Police would be trained to perform CPR on injured cats and dogs, and they would be the front line in animal abuse probes. Special teams of county prosecutors also would be created to handle the cases, much like they already do for child abuse, sex offenses and major crimes.
These are just a few reforms being proposed by leaders of Gov. James E. McGreevey's Animal Welfare Task Force, a group charged with overhauling the way New Jersey handles animal welfare issues.
The nearly 200 pages of draft recommendations, obtained by The Star-Ledger, are still under review by the full 30-member task force, and with McGreevey due to leave office Nov. 15, it is unclear whether any action will be taken on the task force recommendations.
Still, the proposals already are causing a stir within the task force itself and among animal control officers and town officials who would be charged with taking more responsibility for animal welfare.
"We're supposed to do this while solving crimes and handling homeland security? I'm concerned. I'm already 20 officers down from what I should be," said Dover Township Police Chief Michael Mastronardy, who just ended his term as president of the New Jersey Association of Police Chiefs.
"We would never be able to provide the (animal) services to the degree that these people would expect," he added.
McGreevey appointed the task force in February 2003 to recommend improved ways to monitor shelters, investigate animal cruelty and deal with euthanizing strays. Currently, animal control and shelters are handled by a fragmented network of private and public agencies with little state oversight from the Department of Health and Senior Services.
The governor's office yesterday would not comment on the proposals.
"It's in draft form, not in final form," said Micah Rasmussen, a McGreevey spokesman. "We want to wait until the task force does something with it or we have it."
Judith Leiberman, task force chairwoman and a counselor to the governor, did not return telephone calls to her office.
As it stands, the report suggests sweeping changes in how towns, pet owners and animal shelter operations deal with animals.
For example, every town would be forced to hire a trained abuse investigator as well as require its police to be newly trained in all aspects of animal abuse prosecution and detection as they assume the job of responding to animal abuse calls. The SPCA, created more than 100 years ago to investigate animal abuse, would essentially be sidelined and county sheriffs would be required to become central record-keepers on abuse cases.
Overall, the report recommends creating a new animal protection system, funded in part by increased license fees, primarily to care for the more than 120,000 stray animals picked up annually from New Jersey streets.
While traditional spay and neuter programs would be increased, towns would be stopped from rounding up feral cat colonies or preventing people from keeping large groups of animals. Overcrowded shelters would not be able to euthanize unwanted animals except for medical reasons, and the report recommends building more shelters through government and private cooperation.
"What they want is obviously unrealistic," said Roseann Trezza, executive director of the Associated Humane Societies, the largest private animal shelter operation in the state with three shelters and a zoo. "In a perfect world, we wouldn't have to euthanize any animal. But in reality, people do not want to adopt many animals we find and the job of animal protectors is not to merely prolong life, but to relieve suffering," said Trezza.
Not all of the proposals, such as statewide cat licensing, are controversial.
"I think many of the ideas being proposed are good ideas, but there are a few that are causing concerns and we are addressing them with individual task force member responses to the draft," said Nina Austenberg, a task force member and head of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office of the Humane Society of the United States.
Other officials criticized the reach of the task force.
"They have no assimilation with reality here. The people who came up with this seem to be all from just one end of the equation. We want to help cats and dogs, but maybe we should concentrate on enforcing the laws and improving the things already in place," said William Dressel, executive director of the New Jersey League of Municipalities.
Part of the ongoing controversy surrounding the task force was the hiring of two task force leaders by the Department of Health and Senior Services to lead a new Office of Animal Welfare back in June. Without any notice to the task force, Cheryl Maccaroni and Gwyn Sondike started their new jobs this past summer.
Task force member Stu Goldman, an SPCA agent, said the two are among those authoring the final report and now recommending giving the new office widespread authority over animal issues. Goldman said yesterday he is resigning from the task force, claiming he and other members were ignored during their deliberations.
Sondike and Maccaroni did not return calls requesting comment.
Health Commissioner Clifton Lacy declined comment yesterday on the draft report through a spokeswoman. But he previously defended the creation of the new Office of Animal Welfare, explaining it was needed to revive mandated shelter inspections and enforce requirements that animal control officers be certified.
The task force report justified sidelining the SPCA because of a State Commission of Investigation report that revealed widespread mismanagement in individual county SPCAs and no oversight by the state chapter.
It is comforting to see that New Jersey has apparently reduced the human crime rate to the point where they can afford to expend this many resources on "crimes" against animals. Congratulations to all Garden State Freepers - you apparently now live in an idyllic state free from crimes against the person.
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Yes Ma'am.
RE: "Thanks Seadog. LMAO on the RINO's! :^)"
...Not too 'over the top'???
All pet stores should be prevented from selling animals unless those animals are already neutered. Now, I'm really talking about cats, bunnies and dogs more than anything else. I don't see too many guinea pigs on the streets peeing on our cars' tires.
Irresponsible pet owners buy a cute little bunny for their children or grandchildren for Easter and then, after the first cage cleaning, dump it on the streets. I have three that I have rescued. (No "shoot 'em and eat 'em stories, please.) :-) These are domesticated bunnies for pets.
I believe that trapping, neutering and returning a feral cat is much smarter than removing it to be euthanized. Why? Because they'll maintain the cat colony that already exists, especially when there's a food source such as a dumpster. If you remove the cats you'll just get more in their place. If you trap/neuter/return it's a win, win. You won't have the males crying all night for the females, you won't have cats looking for food (especially if you have someone like me who feeds them at night.) The cats actually control our mice and roach population which I can prove from the treasures one of mine have brought home.
For those of us who love animals and watch how badly they are treated and abused, we understand that something has to be done. I do believe in euthanasia for the hundreds of thousands that the shelters can't house, but there are ways that aren't being implemented that can reverse this over-population. If you don't like animals, or cats, then you probably couldn't care less.
Animals should never be revered the same as human life, but that doesn't mean they deserve to suffer either. I have a soft heart for cats especially so I'm currently working on my own little corner of the world (the alley). Have had two breeder female cats spayed and returned and I'm in the process of finding homes for two litters. Feral kittens are easily socialized if caught early enough, and feeding ferals only helps to keep them healthier. Most of them suffer horribly from mange and ear mites and end up dying from upper respiratory infections. It's actually rather sad.
The other issue is breeders. It's out of control and needs to be better controlled.
These people have their hearts in the right place but, like PETA, tend to become overly emotional and/or militant. We do need some changes to current laws about selling fertile animals and there are many from other cultures who haven't got a clue. A dog is purchased to sit on a rope forever. They throw a little food and water at it and that's it. A bunny sits in a cage too small to even move around in and they think that's humane. Come on......
One other thing....it would be nice if somehow us rescuers had a place to go for help in financing our work. Most of us take in more animals than we save, because many times we get calls like..."Come and get this pit bull or I'm gonna kill her. She ate her puppies." Only to find out the caller was lying and that he just didn't want the mother after she had her pups that he wants to sell. The horros stories are endless. We spend alot of our own money trying to make a dent in the ocean of need.
This is an interesting approach.
Ok, how about all pet stores can retail neuters and spayed.
If someone needs breeding stock, than they need to see a breeder?
I'm a home breeder of rabbits for therapy. They are dwarfs used in counciling sessions with psychiatrists and therapists.
In the local news recently, a naive man bought a pair of bunnies for pets. within a few months, he was infested with some 70 bunnies. They burrowed into his furniture and more.
But, now that I lend it more thought, a friend of mine ended up with a similar problem with gerbils. She started with a pair and ended up with over 100.
This does need some more thought.
The task force working on this here in NJ are of unreasonable extremes and politically motivated.
Want three bunnies? I have a Rex (I've been told--I'm not a bunny expert) and a sweet little female lop-ear. I also have an "I don't know what" and he's a doll baby. I just don't like having to deal with the cages. It's enough with all the kittens and cats.
Good for you and your work. Bunnies WOULD be very therapeutic I would think. Their fur is very pleasing to the touch and they have usually very sweet and timid personalities. Makes the nurturer come out in those of us with the soft hearts.
I don't like animal abuse, because those who abuse animals eventually move up the food chain.
That said, I do NOT like some of these "mandatory spay/neuter" policies. People can make their own calls on this just fine - they don't need government going all nanny-state on them.
That said, I'm a guinea pig person myself who's had cats also grow on him to an extent. One thing I've thought about as a hobby down the road is being a guinea pig breeder, so I am going to try to keep the option of that hobby open down the road (I admit self-interest on my part).
So let's work on dealing with the abusers, and leaving the rest of the folks alone. I'm all for enahncing the penalties for animal abuse, etc. But at the same time, let's CLEARLY define what abuse is (for instance, I hear terms like "puppy mill", but it seems there's no definition of a "puppy mill" - it comes down to "I know it when I see it" and that is NOT how I think our laws ought to be written).
Bump
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