Matawan takes an interest in animal welfare

By KAYLA J. MARSH
Staff Writer

A new borough committee will become only the second in New Jersey that will be solely dedicated to the dissemination of information concerning the treatment and well being of animals.

After public interest from concerned citizens arose regarding issues relating to domestic animals and there welfare, the Matawan Borough Council unanimously approved the creation of a new Animal Welfare Advisory Committee at the council’s Dec. 1 meeting.

“The reason that I had proposed this was so that it could be a resource for Matawan citizens with regard to animal issues,” said resident Linda Windas, who is also a member of the Humane Society of America.

The only other municipality in the state with an animal advisory board is Middle Township, which is located in Cape May County.

“There are a lot of people who don’t know where to turn or who to call or where to go when they have questions about animals … so what this will do is provide a resource for the citizens of Matawan for when they have these questions, and it’ll be comprised of professional people who have the knowledge to provide the answers needed,” Windas said.

The Animal Welfare Advisory Committee will be composed of approximately three members appointed by the mayor on an annual basis beginning in January, and all appointments shall be for a one-year period.

“Right now it has just barely begun, so who’s to say where it’s going to be and where it’ll end up … there’s always a really healthy exchange of ideas going on amongst people in the animal welfare community, so it can only go up from here,” Windas said.

“It’s definitely a learning curve from now, so once we get some members together we will need to meet a few times and get some kind of game plan together and figure out how we want to present this to the community and how we’re going to interact with the citizens. While it’s still in the early stages of development, Windas said the goal is to raise public awareness about such topics as animal care during natural disasters and emergencies, enforcement of animal cruelty laws and animal safety regulations, animal poison information, licensing, neutering information, animal adoption resources in the state, as well as humane education in general.

“What I see for the committee right now is a way to impart information via the [borough’s] website so that way we can answer questions that people have and make ourselves available,” Windas said.

“When a citizen calls the town who may need an answer right away or who don’t see something on the website, we are going to make ourselves available … whether it’s via email or on the website or in some other fashion, to help the citizens with whatever their animal issues happen to be.”

According to the New Jersey State Director for the Humane Society Kathleen Schatzmann, Matawan is the second municipality in the state that has enacted an animal advisory board.

“We applaud your efforts and we appreciate you recognizing the role that animals have in the community because this is most definitely a people issue as well as an animal issue, so we thank you for your efforts and are here as a resource for you,” she told council members at the Dec. 1 meeting.

Windas said learning about the other animal advisory board in Middle Township was part of what motivated her to begin the process of establishing the new committee.

“I got to thinking about that and was encouraged to propose this,” she said. “I can’t say the impetus for this came from lots of citizens’ questions, but I have actually had people come up to me and … there’s been lots of different questions that I’ve heard … but I think that there is a need [for the committee] nonetheless because … I think once residents know that this resource is there, they are going to utilize it and maybe come up with questions they don’t know they have yet.”

While many details still need to be decided about the committee, Windas said she hopes other municipalities think about establishing a similar committee in their areas.

“We’re not going to say that we have all the perfect answers, but we do like to think that we are pointing people in the right direction and allowing people to make up their own minds and make their own decisions about which of the resources, links, or safety tips they want to take into consideration,” she said. “It’ll be a great resource for people and their animals because animals, for most people, are an integral part of the community and their family, so I hope that more towns might do something like this … that would be great.”