Boro weighs options for animal services

By ADAM C. UZIALKO
Staff Writer

I n response to complaints from residents about conditions at the Helmetta Regional Animal Shelter, the Sayreville Borough Council has formed a subcommittee to investigate alternatives for animal control services.

Council members Art Rittenhouse, Mary Novak and Lisa Eicher were named to the panel after residents complained to the governing body about the health of animals up for adoption and the documentation of animals being moved in and out of the Helmetta shelter.

“I want to check more options,” Novak, council president, said at the council’s Aug. 25 meeting. “I would love to bring it back into town, but I don’t know if that’s feasible. I’m checking out all alternatives.”

Novak said she toured Woodbridge’s animal shelter with Councilman David McGill to consider it as one alternative to using the Helmetta shelter for animal control. The borough for many years used the services of the now-defunct Sayreville Pet Adoption Center, but began using Helmetta’s animal control services and shelter in 2011.

“Woodbridge has 7 acres for the two communities it serves,” Novak said, adding that the shelter provides all of the animals’ information on the cages.

“They charge less for adoption, and all animals are fixed and checked by a vet. They even have an animal behaviorist come in and work with the animals to ensure they will make good pets. [They provide] so much more than our animals currently get,” she said.

Rittenhouse cited a report from the Middlesex County Board of Health, which found no egregious violations at Helmetta’s shelter, but he said he would like to research alternatives anyway.

“Reports back from the [county] Board of Health find that nothing is more unusual than other shelters,” Rittenhouse said. “But I think the perception is there, and I do think we need to look at other alternatives, including bringing it back into town or into some other shelters.” Sayreville Board of Health officials also expressed a desire to have a better system of tracking the number of animals that are picked up in Sayreville and brought to the shelter.

“Our Board of Health would like more accurate records,” Rittenhouse said. “Right now, the only way we know how many animals are taken to Helmetta is on the invoice that is given by Helmetta. We have no real way to track how many animals are picked up.”

Brianne Rogers, a Sayreville resident who works for Whiskers Rescue, a nonprofit trap-neuter-release program, said the borough should consider using her group’s services.

“In 2010, [Whiskers Rescue] offered funding to help with cats,” Rogers said.

She said that on behalf of Whiskers Rescue she has personally brought more than 100 cats to a veterinarian for medical care and neutering since April.

Mayor Kennedy O’Brien said officials had previously considered using Whiskers Rescue, but decided against it because the cats would be released back into town.

“That’s an issue for a lot of people who own a home,” he said. “They don’t want … feral cats living on their property.”

According to O’Brien, the borough was in need of a more cost-effective animal control service, which Helmetta provided.

“We had to find another service. Helmetta came in, they were a low-cost provider, and they checked out with the Board of Health and with the ASPCA,” O’Brien said, referring to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

However, if residents could find a shelter that ameliorates their concerns for a comparable cost, officials would “take a serious look at it,” he said.

Helmetta Public Works Director Darren Doran explained the procedure for owners to retrieve animals that have been picked up by Helmetta’s animal control officers.

“Most times the person calls the Police Department, and they are referred to the animal shelter,” Doran said. “All animals that come from the borough are taken to the shelter.”

According to Doran, the animal is held for seven days so that an owner may claim it in accordance with state law.

Not all animals at the shelter are neutered, but a Jamesburg veterinarian, Dr. Ehab Ibrahim, visits once a month, Doran said.

He invited members of the Borough Council to visit the shelter to observe conditions.