Dear Editor:
A recent article in a local newspaper reported about a situation regarding the pick up of stray or abandoned animals in Jersey City. It was written in the context of the roles of the Jersey City Governmental Office of Animal Control, the Jersey City police, and the Assisi Center-SPCA.
There are some facts presented which are not true.
The Assisi Center is a life center which is dedicated completely to the health, safety, dignity and prevention of abuse to all living creatures, especially the dogs and cats of Jersey City and Hudson County. We also are dedicated to the less domesticated wildlife which calls Hudson County its natural home and which life currently is devastated by the development of the shores of the Hudson and Hackensack Rivers. We have committed to our mission in that we do not arbitrarily kill animals because of their breed or their age. We also do not kill animals because they have been with us for seven days or because someone may regard that animal as unadoptable. It must be noted here that the state of New Jersey, the city of Jersey City Health Offices, PETA and some local animal “lovers” recommend euthanasia so as to insure open space for other animals. The Assisi Center does not believe that this is a humane or a moral practice.”Shelters” are not shelters at all. They are killing places where loving and lovable living creatures are routinely killed for no reasons of their own. Meanwhile, the persons responsible for the mistreatment and abandonment of these innocent victims are never in any way held accountable. Well, the Assisi Center is a whole new ball game.
Incidentally, here are some truths and facts about us which are verifiable and documented. Despite allegations against the SPCA and the Assisi Center, we do not “stockpile” animals. In the three months of our existence thus far, we have adopted out more than 220 dogs and cats into new good homes. Sadly, during that same time we have had to euthanize some 20 animals for veterinary or humane reasons. We have a daily population averaging some 90 animals. If you consider that we are a city of 230,000 people and a county of more than twice than number, 90 animals living with us at the center is a small number indeed.
Another truth despite that newspaper report’s content, is that in our three months, we have accepted and we continue to accept animals from the city animal control office and the police. Incidentally, the animal control office is established within the Department of Health. ACOs are supposed to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Despite public perception and historic practice, the police are neither trained to or responsible for the handling of animals. The only reason police are ever required to pick up an animal is the absolute and abject refusal of the ACO to perform his duties. My strong recommendation is that Jersey City as every other progressive city in America, dissolve its government animal control function and contract with the local animal shelter for a ACO services.
The Assisi Center is not your father’s SPCA. We are an agency of the millennium, dedicated to the dignity of the life of every creature on earth. If there is a problem, the problem is that we have upset some very comfortable apple carts We dot every I and cross every t. We are creative and innovative. We are proactive doers, not reactive crisis managers. We welcome the thousands of you who are like us to be part of our efforts.
You know, dear reader, that as you walk to work or school, go to buy the newspaper, go to play the lottery, or simply walk around your neighborhood that it is a very rare occasion when you see a stray dog and certainly it has been a long time since we were an overcrowded industrial railroad city with packs and packs of wild dogs roaming the streets devouring children and circling our grandmothers. It will be even longer in the future before we see that again. The time is now . The place is here. The facts are facts. The truth is verifiable. We know that the majority of you are not any part of a problem. We welcome you to be part of the few remaining solutions necessary for the optimum quality of life for all who live here, for any failure in this regard impacts negatively on each and all of our lives. Bad does not occur simply because people do evil things. Bad only survives when good people do nothing.
Do something.
Tom Hart, executive director
Assisi Center, SPCA