Jersey City’s animal welfare advocates will have to wait another month to see if the City Council takes action to reform city’s Animal Control division.
The council voted against an ordinance on Wednesday that would have made an employee in the Office of the Mayor’s Action Bureau an Animal Control Ombudsman to handle citizens’ complaints and inquiries. The council cited legal issues over how the ordinance was structured. Councilman Steven Fulop had proposed the measure in response to complaints from citizens about Animal Control officials dumping stray cats in town, and other longstanding issues.
The council also tabled an ordinance establishing a 19-member Animal Control Commission to develop standards for the division, ensure compliance with city and state laws, and study the responses of animal control officers.
However, the council will consider a revised version of that ordinance at their May 20 meeting at City Hall, 280 Grove St., at 6 p.m.
The commission ordinance is being overhauled to eliminate some commission duties, such as evaluating the job performance of animal control officers, and will cut the number of commissioners from 19 to nine. But Fulop, who designed the ordinance, said on Thursday that the lawyers working with him on the measure say there are no problems with its legality.
The inaction on the ordinances only fired up residents who came out to support them.
One who encouraged reform was Timothy Redel, a downtown Jersey City resident. He said that the stray cats he was taking care of in Liberty Marina near Liberty State Park were being mauled by what he believed was a stray dog on the loose. He said that Animal Control was slow to respond to his phone calls and disrespectful to him over the phone. He passed out several blown-up photos of the mauled stray cats to the council.
Grooming the ordinances
Councilman Fulop said he created the new ordinances at the request of Morgan Metius, a downtown resident whose cat “Daisy” got loose and was captured by Animal Control officers in February. The cat was allegedly dumped by the officials in Lincoln Park rather than taken to the Liberty Animal Shelter. Metius’ attorney Diana Jeffrey, a longtime animal advocate, also requested the ordinances.
The treatment of Metius’ cat, which was found after being lost for five days in the park, provoked an uproar from animal lovers and led to the suspension of two Animal Control officers for five days. The Animal Control division has been put in charge of investigating of its own officers’ conduct, which Fulop found unacceptable.
Fulop also designed the ordinances based on recommendations from a City Council subcommittee established over two years ago to study past problems with the Animal Control office.
Fulop actually went along with the majority that voted down his ombudsman ordinance, saying Thursday he hopes to reintroduce it another day. He left the meeting before the commission ordinance was tabled.
Councilmen Bill Gaughan and Peter Brennan criticized Fulop for not being present for the vote to table the commission ordinance, saying his efforts on this matter were “political.”
Fulop shot back on Thursday, “It’s the political funny season and I take those comments as being a result of it.”
Fulop is among those running to keep his council seat on May 12.
Still want Animal Control under control
Animal welfare allies spoke in front of the council to push for passage of both ordinances.
“Animals have no voice to speak for themselves; we have to speak for them.” – Virgina Kipps
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Virginia Kipps, another animal advocate, emphasized the importance of the commission.
“Animals have no voice to speak for themselves; we have to speak for them,” Kipps said, “and the commission could be a mechanism to do that, to be the voice for the city’s stray and feral animals.”
Nelson Montes, a former volunteer at the Hudson County SPCA shelter on Johnston Avenue before it was closed down last year for violations, said the ordinances would help Jersey City’s Animal Control division to not express “indifference” in its operations.
He also called for the commission to be patterned after civilian complaint boards operating across the country, and to be “proactive” and “positive.”
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonrreporter.com.