There is a lot less barking going on at the Assissi Center on Johnston Avenue these days.
Using an “aggressive adoption policy,” the animal shelter’s new president, Stanley Rotopel, said that the century-old chapter of the Hudson County SPCA has managed to reduce its dog population from 90 to 30 canines in seven months.
Dedicated to abiding by the no-kill philosophy of the shelter’s predecessor, Tom Hart, Rotopel has linked up with rescue agencies that have helped find homes for the stray animals brought to it. According to Doreen Roman, an employee at the Assisi Center, approximately 20 dogs and 15 cats are brought in each week. But since Rotopel took over, she said, only four animals have been euthanized. All of those animals suffered from severe medical problems, according to Rotopel.
Walking around the shelter, one can see a big difference. The first room no longer has cages stacked upon cages filled with barking dogs. In fact, those rusty metal cages have been dismantled and thrown outside to await a garbage truck. The floors where the cages were have been repainted and the room is open to the possibility of putting in a new pet care area.
In addition to the room in the central area, the adjacent garage-turned-shelter areas outside have been cleared of the dogs as well. The five employees working at the shelter now – another reduction from the 22 formerly working there – have removed the broken floor tiles, painted the floor, and are about to build a room for board meetings.
The Hudson County SPCA, a 10-member board, meets once a month to address the shelter’s finances, policies, and plans. Rotopel said that the shelter should be able to subsist on approximately $200,000 per year. To raise this capital, the shelter has begun the grant-writing process, a fundraising campaign, and enforcing the $50 drop-off fees for people who want to bring an animal to the shelter. Soon, the shelter will resume its practice of responding to calls as Rotopel awaits a promised van for the job.
The shelter is one of two in the city. Unlike the city shelter across town, the SPCA shelter also contracts with other municipalities, although in recent years some towns have instead contracted with the Newark Humane Societies shelter because of problems the SPCA had been having. In addition to construction changes, policies have changed at the shelter, too. When people come in to adopt a dog, they must fill out a four-page application before they are allowed to walk into the room to select one. Rotopel said that he has kept a careful eye on records of who adopts the pets as well as where they come from in the first place.
Six puppies
On a Tuesday afternoon, Rhonda Robinson brought in a mixed breed dog that just gave birth to a half dozen puppies. While Robinson and her son, Christian, 13, decided to keep the mother, they brought the puppies to the Assisi Center in the hopes that they would be adopted.
According to Rotopel, getting puppies adopted is the easiest part of the job. He said that the shelter adopted a litter of nine Rottweilers in one day less than a week ago.
“There was a little tension at first when I took over as a president,” said Stanley Rotopel, the executive director. According to Rotopel, former Executive Director Tom Hart, an animal lover, was fired from his unpaid position because of financial excesses that had depleted the non-profit organization’s funds. At the time, Hart insisted that those expenses were one-time line items that were necessary for getting the shelter out of the deplorable condition it was in when he took over. Some of that money went to legal and veterinary fees.
“But that’s all gone. [The staff] works very well together,” Rotopel said. “They get a lot of things done.” Aside from feeding, cleaning and walking the dogs, the staff has contributed to the structural renovation of the facility. Volunteers also lend a helping hand, Rotopel said, by assisting all of the mentioned tasks in many ways.
But even with the strides the shelter has taken, it has yet to convince the coalition of Hudson County animal activist groups that it is more beneficial to work in concert with the group than against it.
Rotopel claimed that he has tried to reach out to those groups in fundraising dinners and meetings, but has had no success convincing them to work as on team. That coalition has helped sponsor the creation of the city-run shelter on Jersey City Boulevard, less than a mile away.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done so far,” Rotopel said. “We’ve got a ways to go and we’re going to get there. Hopefully, in five years we’ll have a new shelter. Right now, the thing is to get it on an even keel so it’s self-sufficient.”