The kids who came to help install cat perches at the Secaucus Animal Shelter Tuesday did not realize how special a day it was.
The students, mostly sixth graders from Clarendon School, had come to help make the place better for the local animals as part of a program put on by PSE&G. Dressed in yellow hard hats and bearing wide grins, they wielded tools and held shelves in place so that the stray animals would have a place to sleep.
Above them, along ducts running across the main holding area, the cats watched with their usual feline disinterest, studying the scurrying below as if the human activity was one more event to be endured in their long nine lives.
The cats eyed the new construction suspiciously, and though some were shyer than others, several came down or hung out on the lower perches to get their due of petting.
“I wanted to do something to help the cats,” said Michael Lienhard, who said he liked rabbits and once had a pet cat. “I wanted to help put up the shelves for the cats to hang out.”
Michael Lyngholm said his mother had told him about the program and that he wanted to help the cats, too, noting he used to have a pet cat named “Boots.”
Last year, Hartz Mountain offered to convert its former unused sewerage treatment building off Meadowlands Parkway to a new animal kennel. The former kennel had no heat and lacked room to house the variety of animals that Animal Control Officer Al McClure had rescued during his duties through the town. The new facility, which began operations just in time for winter, has heat and air conditioning, a dog run, kennels for about a dozen dogs, as well as a separate room for cats and dogs.
But what it lacked were small items such as shelves for the cats in the open caged area where they could perch. PSE&G, according to Mayor Dennis Elwell, used the resources of its construction department to provide added elements such as the cat shelves. The cat room along is nearly twice the size of the old shelter, with a special section fenced in to give the cats room to roam.
“We wanted to get the kids involved so we reached out to the schools,” said Richard Dywer from PSE&G’s wildlife program.
Cheryl Lyngholm, Michael’s mother, is a member of the Clarendon School PTA and works with the school lunch program.
“I love cats,” she said. “So we came down to help.”
She noted that she has helped rescue animals in the past and had great affection for the work that McClure has been doing as animal control officer. Town workers, students, parents and public officials gathered for a short ceremony during the construction work to dedicate the building.
Elwell helped make the day special by naming the new kennel after the 78-year-old McClure.
“I know we usually wait until someone retires to name something after them, but we thought it was only fitting that Al receive the honor while he is still working for us,” Elwell said.
McClure still gets around
McClure has already become one of the town’s living legends, the man to whom nearly everyone turns when they have a problem with an animal.
“If an animal’s been hit on the road or found wandering around at 2 a.m. in the morning, you know you can call on Al and he’ll come down to help,” said Police Captain Richard Scalzo. “He loves animals that much.”
McClure – although nearing retirement – serves as the animal control officer as well as the town’s property maintenance officer, duties that send him to every part of the town nearly every day.
Twice a day he makes a trip down to the kennels to feed animals housed there as well as the host of wild cats and other creatures that come out from the nearby meadows for food.
Before Secaucus upgraded its kennel this year – thanks to a cooperative agreement with Hartz Mountain Industries – the town kennel had no heat.
“In winter, Al was known to bring the dogs home to his house so they wouldn’t get cold,” said Scalzo.
It was his suggestions that allowed the town to upgrade its facilities, creating adequate space for dogs and cats acquired through McClure’s duties. McClure also feeds the ducks and chickens at the Duck Pond, and patrols the town, helping residents deal with the influx of wild creatures raccoon, skunks and squirrels to the more exotic muskrat and weasels wandering in from the meadows.
“Al has worked a lot with us a lot to help the wildlife,” said Dywer. “Last year, we set up wildlife release cages with his help. Now, when he needed shelves for the cats in the shelter, we were happy to comply.”
Secaucus also contracts with the county’s Assisi animal shelter in Jersey City to take in strays, but that shelter often had no room for new animals last year due to its no-kill policy, which was instituted a year and a half ago and lifted last month. McClure said last week that he’d rather keep the animals in a place where they have a better chance of being adopted and not being euthanized.
For information on the Secaucus shelter, call 330-2080.