To the Editor:
After seeing what happened at the City Council meeting on July 20, I cannot just sit by and not address this issue. When my husband, Gary La Pelusa, was the 3rd Ward councilman from 2006-2010, he sat down with Kathy Henderson, Jason O’Donnell, as well as Michelle Lerner Esq., an attorney for the Bayonne Feral Cat Foundation, on several different occasions to put this ordinance together. We need some sort of ordinance in place immediately. This has gone on way too long with nothing in place.
This town has a very serious problem with stray cats. Go behind A&P, Sunset Avenue, behind the bowling alley – a few places where there are major colonies of cats. I personally have seen about five or six stray cats in my own neighborhood. I am disgusted at the way the DPW’s employees handled the cat that was killed downtown and picked up and thrown into a dump truck. This is despicable. Gary and I were taking a ride down First Street and we came across a girl in the middle of the street standing over a cat, which she had accidentally hit with her vehicle. Gary called the police and Kathy Henderson while we waited for the police to find out what can be done or where the police could take the cat. Once the police were able to capture the cat, they told Gary they were taking this injured cat to Dr. Frezzo’s office. The next day, there was no record of this cat being helped. This cat was found out of town.
The problem I see here is that Mr. D’Amico doesn’t feel that this issue is important. He must realize that this is very important to the residents of Bayonne. Mr. D’Amico doesn’t see these stray cats because he lives in Secaucus. He says the Law Department is short staffed. Well, if he would take a pay cut of his almost $150,000 salary, maybe the City could afford another lawyer in his department.
Mr. Ruane sits in his seat looking like a deer caught in head lights when Mrs. Henderson gets up and talks about this issue. He knows very well there was an ordinance drafted over a year ago and it is his ego that is keeping this from going further and nothing else. If Gary wasn’t the one who put this original ordinance together, it would have been passed immediately.
What is going on with the board put together to discuss this issue? Ms. Gillespie and Ms. Czerwienski are supposed to both be on it. You never hear them make any comments regarding this. What happened to the voices you women claim to have? None of you have your own voice up there and it is a shame. All we ever hear from any one of the council members is that they are going to look into this and get back to Mrs. Henderson. This is just not good enough anymore!
CHERIE LA PELUSA